TIFF ‘23: A Humorous Look at Activism in ‘A Difficult Year’

By Abe Friedtanzer

Courtesy of TIFF

There are many things to be angry about in today’s world, including the inaction by governments around crucial issues. Activism takes many forms and often has specific aims, but the goals of a protest movement can also be wildly unattainable. The very funny A Difficult Year pokes fun at that notion with its story of two opportunists who become involved with an anti-commercialization group for all the wrong reasons...

Albert (Pio Marmaï) is in desperate financial shape, rushing into a Black Friday sale to buy a TV for someone willing to pay him to snag it and sleeping at the airport thanks to the access provided by his employee badge. When he meets the equally hopeless and broke Bruno (Jonathan Cohen), the two realize that the answer to their money problems may be to join forces with an activist codenamed Cactus (Noémie Merlant) under the guise of supporting her causes, while actually seeking to profit from their humanitarian endeavors. 

This satire from filmmakers Olivier Nakache and Éric Toledano opens with footage from a number of years in which politicians declare that the coming year is indeed going to be tough. That repetitive cycle sets up a clever and fun look at how people consider change. When Albert makes a move on Cactus and is promptly slapped, she later tells him that she can consider a relationship once things are better in the world. Pressed to clarify that timeline, she specifies a long list of entirely unrealistic goals that must be fully achieved before she can think about romance. It’s an all-or-nothing approach that may be necessary to move the needle even slightly but does sound ludicrous when presented in such a manner. Compromise isn’t the aim, but rather a determination to hold the line until she doesn’t have any energy left.

This was easily the funniest film I saw during my time in Toronto, and it knows when to lean into the absurd, not concerned with the logistics of how someone might be able to spot a fake like Albert or Bruno but ready to follow them down their latest rabbit hole. Mathieu Amalric is a delight as Henri, who works to help others get out of financial crisis but has his own uncontrollable gambling addiction, which finds him dressing up to disguise his appearance so that the casino from which he’s been banned might let him in for just a few minutes. Marmaï and Cohen are fun, and it’s nice to see Merlant, who returns to TIFF after headlining Baby Ruby last year, in a lighter role that fits her talents just as well. This is hardly the most serious cinema screening at TIFF, but it’s a blast, weaving political commentary into a deeply entertaining story. B+

A Difficult Year made its international premiere in the Special Presentation section at TIFF.

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