Zero Fucks Given

The last time I flew on a budget airline, I spent four hours wedged between a bachelor party and a woman who was trying to smuggle a very nervous emotional support iguana in her carry-on. The flight attendants had that specific look—a mixture of "I am legally required to smile" and "I might actually jump out of the emergency exit if one more person asks for a free cup of water." It’s a very modern kind of purgatory, and I’ve never seen it captured with more heartbreaking, hilarious accuracy than in Zero Fucks Given (or Rien à foutre).

I actually watched this film on my laptop while eating a bowl of cold leftover spaghetti at 2:00 AM, and honestly, the lack of glamour in my living room perfectly complemented the film's gritty, neon-lit aesthetic.

The Low-Cost Lifestyle

The film follows Cassandre, played by the magnetic Adèle Exarchopoulos (who most of us first saw in the gut-wrenching Blue Is the Warmest Colour). She’s a flight attendant for "Wing," a low-cost carrier that is basically Ryanair with the serial numbers filed off. Cassandre lives in Lanzarote, but she doesn’t really "live" anywhere. She floats. She spends her days pushing scratch-off tickets on passengers and her nights in a blur of Tinder hookups, cheap tequila, and Instagram filters.

What makes this more than just another "sad girl" indie is how it treats the corporate grind. The directors, Emmanuel Marre and Julie Lecoustre, filmed a lot of this using guerrilla tactics on actual flights. There’s no Hollywood sheen here. You can practically smell the recirculated air and the faint scent of disinfectant. Adèle Exarchopoulos gives a performance that is almost entirely internal; she has this incredible ability to look completely vacant while her eyes suggest a building internal pressure that’s eventually going to blow the cabin doors off. She plays the 'robotic service worker' so well I half-expected her to try and upsell me a perfume kit through my screen.

The Gig Economy Soul

In the current era of cinema, we’re seeing a lot of films tackle the "hustle." From Nomadland to Sorry We Missed You, directors are obsessed with how we survive in a world where everyone is a "contractor" and nobody has a safety net. Zero Fucks Given hits differently because it’s so funny in its bleakness. There’s a scene where Cassandre is being "trained" on how to smile—specifically, how to smile with her eyes while keeping her mouth neutral to avoid wrinkles or looking "too aggressive." It’s peak corporate absurdity.

The film perfectly captures that 2020s feeling of being hyper-connected but totally isolated. Cassandre’s life is a series of digital pings. She’s checking her "scores" as an employee, swiping through faces on apps, and recording herself having fun to prove to the world (and herself) that she’s having a great time. It is the definitive movie for people who have ever felt like an NPC in their own life.

A Sudden Change in Altitude

The comedy starts to bleed into a much more tender, raw drama when Cassandre is suddenly dismissed from her job and forced to return to her family home in Belgium. This is where we meet Alexandre Perrier as her father and Mara Taquin as her sister. The shift from the sunny, artificial brightness of the Canary Islands to the grey, somber reality of her family's grief (centering around the death of her mother) is jarring in the best way.

It turns out Cassandre wasn't just partying because she’s a "wild child." She was using the high-altitude lifestyle as a way to literally stay above her problems. If you’re always in the air, you don't have to touch the ground where the pain lives. It’s a simple metaphor, but the script handles it with such a light touch that it never feels like a "Message Movie." It just feels like life.

Stuff You Didn't Notice

One of the coolest things about this production is how much of it was unscripted and "real." The "Base Supervisor" who lectures Cassandre about her performance? That’s David Martinez Pinon, who wasn’t a professional actor but a man with actual experience in the industry. The directors wanted that authentic, soul-crushing corporate vocabulary that you just can't fake.

Most of the passengers you see on the planes were just people flying from point A to point B who happened to be on the same flight as a film crew. It gives the movie a documentary-style urgency. There’s a certain thrill in knowing that while Adèle Exarchopoulos was delivering a masterclass in nuanced acting, the guy in 14C was probably just wondering if they were ever going to come around with the snack trolley.

Zero Fucks Given is a rare bird. It manages to be a biting satire of the aviation industry, a hilarious look at Gen Z party culture, and a deeply moving study of grief, all without ever feeling like it’s trying too hard. It’s the kind of film that makes you look at the person serving you coffee or checking your boarding pass a little differently. It reminds us that behind every "corporate-approved" smile, there’s usually a whole lot of turbulence.

If you’re looking for a film that captures the weird, plastic, lonely, and occasionally beautiful spirit of the early 2020s, this is it. It’s a "hidden gem" that deserves a lot more eyes on it. Just maybe don't watch it right before you have to catch a 6:00 AM flight to Ibiza. You might find yourself checking the exits for reasons other than safety.