Polixène and Loubet : you don’t cut a winning team !

Polixène and Loubet : you don’t cut a winning team !

Sylvain Loubet and Nicolas Polixène weren’t at their first try when it came to direct CUT ME IF YOU CAN. They had indeed worked together in 2018 for their project American Dream : a short film telling the broken dream of two French brothers, who moved to the USA. But this is more than just anecdotal, as American Dream was a complete success, by firstly being nominated for some twenty festivals around the globe, and winning many awards including : “Best French film” in Nice film festival, 5 awards for Venice Short film festival (USA) : Best International film, script, actors ...

In 2022 they were back together for CUT ME IF YOU CAN, a 20 minutes long horror comedy which we discovered this year on the occasion of the 2024 Courts Métrange Festival. And well, we will remember this moment.

In fact, we deep dove into an ordinary movie theatre where the two protagonists Michelle and Mike will try to escape a bloody killer, just as in a classic horror film. But this isn’t just a classic horror film. We see that the two stereotyped victims are playing the same scenes all over and over again. But eventually, Michelle, fed up with her condition, breaks loose from the script and does what she wants.

Mike follows her in this theatre/prison break and this gives us a great horror film parody, with some exaggerated stereotypes like the hypersexualized feminine protagonist Michelle is at the beginning, and some ridiculous scenes provided by Mike, the fearful black guy who always dies first, here a truly funny character.

The good points of this film are the different levels or degrees of perception you can make of it, which turn out to each be as interesting as the other. Firstly when you watch the movie, you simply pass a great moment : you are scared, but not too much, a bit disgusted, but you laugh, the atmosphere is rather light for a horror film. And this is what makes the first level of perception -watching the movie- very appreciable : every spectator will be satisfied. In fact, the movie is made so as to make you appreciate it quickly : very soon, it breaks free from the classic horror script, and catches the spectater’s eye. This original script is really well created, there is a perfect balance between laugh and fear, which makes “CUT ME IF YOU CAN” really easy to watch. Because of that, watching this movie will always be a nice moment, with friends or family. But this movie has also a deeper meaning, even more interesting. In fact, this film makes us have a serious reflexion about the film industry, by mocking the ridiculous stereotypes used in some films, but also by condemning bad actors' treatment.

But although this film is really reachable and enjoyable, there are still things that could be better. Firstly, when it comes to making the spectators laugh, Polixène and Loubet’s film is really efficient. However, Mike’s character can raise questions. Indeed, he is extremely close to a typical Kevin Hart’s character, in his behaviour, his non charisma, his fearfulness and the way he makes us laugh. So close, that it could be a part of the parody, but to have such an identical character makes us forget that they are not the same, and so this similarity makes Mike really funnier, but not unique, and that is unfortunate for such a funny character. Also, the film industry's denunciation could be more efficient. It is a shame that the spectater has to reach the second level of lecture and to really analyse to find out that this movie has a serious message.

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