‘The Second Act’ Review: A Meta Film About Film That Loses Its Focus | Cannes 2024

Léa Seydoux, Louis Garrel, Vincent Lindon, and Raphaël Quenard—what more could you want in a film? It sounds like the perfect cast on paper, and even on the film, they do magnificently well with their performances, but unfortunately, they’re wasted on a film that spends too much time trying to be meta with sensitive topics instead of focusing on the movie side of things. 

The Second Act is a comedy that follows four people: Florence (Léa Seydoux), David (Louis Garrel), Guillaume (Vincent Lindon), and Willy (Raphaël Quenard), four actors who are currently shooting a romance movie. 

To my surprise and most of the audience’s surprise, the Netflix logo and iconic tu-dum sound appeared before the film, in the mix of all the studios that helped with it. It’s a bad way of thinking, as Netflix does have many good films on their platform, but unfortunately, this set the bar for what I was to expect pretty low, and thankfully, I was right to do so. 

From reading the synopsis of this film, I expected an actual rom-com, and it sounded like it would’ve been hilarious from just the premise alone: a woman who has a crush on a guy, but the guy has no interest in her and wants to set up his friend with her while her father is there. It sounds completely chaotic, and don’t get me wrong, this film can be funny at times, and it for sure gets chaotic, but just not in the way that was expected. 

The film starts off, and within the first ten minutes, you discover that this is a movie about making a film. The actors begin to look at the camera and start referencing issues within the industry, such as cancel culture, once Willy starts to assume that Florence is transgender and speaks about his “disgust” towards trans people, in which he is then forced to rephrase his words so they don’t sound as bad. 

Jokes like these throughout the film that target trans, disabled, and eventually Jewish people start to get tiring, especially when these jokes overstay their welcome in scenes where you just wish they would move onto the next subject and also when this film genuinely has something going for it with its actual plot. 

I have not previously watched a Quentin Dupieux film, so I’m not familiar with his style, but it was clear that he was using this film to make fun of the industry, which becomes obvious in scenes where they’re criticising actors who ignore the real-world problems that are occurring, a topic that is very relevant in today’s world. 

While trying to keep spoilers to a minimum, the topic of AI and its use in the industry is brought up. In the moment and how they handle it can be quite hilarious, but at the same time, I start to question what the purpose of the film is, what was Dupieux’s goal, did he achieve it, and I’m just struggling to understand, or is this film an actual incoherent mess that’s just jabbing at all the controversial topics, such as the #MeToo movement, which doesn’t seem like the right move for a film premiering at the Cannes Film Festival? 

With all that aside, the film can be hilarious when focusing on the film that the actors are making. The moments, such as when Guillaume is boasting about getting cast in a Paul Thomas Anderson movie or when Stéphane (Manuel Guillot), the extra in the film, is struggling to perform a simple scene because of his nerves, are moments where the film truly shines and excels with its meta humour. 

Another thing that overstays its welcome, like some of the jokes in this film, is the runtime. It’s a short film—an hour and twenty minutes roughly—but thanks to the poor pacing, with certain scenes/jokes lasting a millennia, it starts to factor in and makes the film seem ten minutes longer than it actually is. The ending is something to be debated about because, personally, it didn’t sit well with me and seemed very abrupt, but once again, that could be the very purpose it was meant to fulfil. 

The one aspect of this film that stays consistent from start to finish is the performances; they’re excellent, and Léa Seydoux and Vincent Lindon are the crowd-pleasers, with Louis Garrel and Raphaël Quenard also bringing something to the table to offer with their performances. It’s the one thing that brings substance to this film and makes it even worth watching. 

The Second Act is a somewhat funny film that loses all its potential once it starts hitting the halfway point. The pacing is not consistent, with poor jokes lasting too long and some of the best jokes in the film not even lasting half the time. It’s possible that Dupieux made a film that was just too meta for him to handle. 

If it weren’t for the outstanding performances from Léa Seydoux, Louis Garrel, Vincent Lindon, and Raphaël Quenard, I don’t think the good parts of this film would’ve survived. The cast is The Second Act’s strongest component, and without them, the entire structure would crumble. 

The Second Act is out now in French theatres.