I Love America

Seemingly ageless French icon Sophie Marceau plays a woman who after raising two daughters looks for a fresh start in the US. As she's a movie director in her home country she chooses LA and Hollywood as her destination. Lisa also has a close friend there. She wants to experience the places she's seen in her favorite movies and maybe relive some of the stories portrayed there. You may have noticed by now that this is a semi-autobiographical movie depicting the life of the director of this very film. So you won't be surprised that it's not just the typical Hollywood romcom made after a checklist from the studio. Indeed it seems to be combining the French way of making movies with some of the Hollywood standards. Yes, we have some typical ingredients like the supportive gay friend and the obnoxious dates meant to make us cringe. Yet almost at the beginning we get a u-turn where Lisa has to literally revisit her deeply troubled relationship with her parents. So we witness her reluctantly dealing with her childhood trauma both in the current time frame and in flashbacks. This can be rather depressing, sad and triggering at times but when we wade through the difficult emotions with our protagonist we can also enjoy the shiny and (not always) happy encounters throughout the movie. The somber undertone makes this movie less of a comedy. It's rather a fresh and uninhibited look at modern relationships. So if you're in it just for cheap laughs you might be disappointed. We have some of the bizarre downsides of (online) dating here but they are shown in a realistic way so they are not really laughable due to their somewhat ridiculous nature. These are rather WTF moments. Also if you don't like gay people being shown cross-dressing and kissing you will probably hate it. I blame homophobia for the surprisingly low reviews. Apparently some "American patriots" were drawn in by the title just to realize that it is the open minded America people from outside the US love. If you hate truly American values like freedom of expression don't watch this. If you are a healthy heterosexual man (like I am) - sorry for the outing - you may want to watch the movie just to see the lead's breasts! They are incredible. How on earth do they look so beautiful at that age without looking fake at all? I hope this is not just about CGI special effects. Given that I Love America is just an Amazon Prime production and rather low budget compared to full-fledged Hollywood movies I was pleasantly surprised by the depth, uplifting message and overall enthusiasm of this little film. The main drawback is that it's basically two films at once, one about dealing with childhood trauma and one about navigating the often strange realm of dating and (the lack of) relationships these days. I had the impression that the movie was jumping back and forth all the time. Each time you relaxed a bit there was another blast from the past. So I can't give "I Love America" a 9 or 10 like the "one time reviewers" reviews which look like mostly written by friends and team members. I Love America is clearly better than your stereotypical Hollywood romcoms. It combines the best of two worlds, French filmmaking and tried out Hollywood concepts yet it could be more polished and have benefitted from a bigger budget IMHO. The editing and overall cinematography have suffered from this apparent lack of funds. I hope to see more (American movies) of Sophie Marceau and writer-director Lisa Azuelos. This is indeed a fresh start. Last but not least Sophie plays a woman of 50 who poses as 43 while in reality being 57 at time of filmmaking. I had to look that up to make sure. Why? She looks incredible. I should add "older women" to my online dating settings haha.

I thoroughly enjoyed this movie. It was truly heartfelt and touching, very relatable, and personal to those that can relate. It's a warm, feel good, and sentimental film. I would def watch again and recommend.

I only enjoyed watching Sophie Marceau in this movie. Otherwise the story is really boring, the role of the gay best friend is a caricature, and the actor doesn't play well. The voice over and the constant flashbacks become annoying and too repetitive. The story doesn't feel real, we don't see anything about her career as a movie director in LA. People are rich but don't work. I was just hoping for a plot twist all along the movie, but nothing ever happened.

A feel good movie, genuine, funny, not trying to make a point, just a true story that needed to be shared. Very well performed characters and a breath of fresh air, sun, and dream beaches in LA. What a great change from all the drama and violence in most movies! I really don't understand the negative comments.

Fav. Quote "Forgiveness doesn't heal the past, it transforms it". Cos of her mom. Actually, Lisa's love story made it interesting. The fact she accepted that she's old enough for that stuff made the twist of the film at the ending cool.

I liked this film a lot. It talks about Mother-Daughter relationships building upon Director Lisa Azuelos' own complicated relation with her mother - the famous French singer Marie Laforet. The BFF character might be seen as overstated but he is really fun. Headline actress Sophie Marceau drives strong emotions. By the Director of "LOL" Dalida" and "Comme t'y es belle" that were cool films too.

It's a very personal drama telling the director's own story about feeling abandoned by her mother, the famous French singer Marie Laforet. Most reviewers didn't "get" the film because they viewed it as a romantic comedy about the American dating culture; they were misled by Amazon Prime Video's terrible promotion material that announces the film as such. It seems that many American/British film distributors insist on doing this to European films: promoting them as comedies, thinking that American and British audiences will not watch a film that is a labelled as drama. So they lie to the public. Looking back, we could not remember a single scene that we might label as "funny..." Because the film is not meant to be funny! Sixty seconds into the film my wife and I said to each other: "this is no comedy!" And we continued watching and enjoyed it for what it really is: the story of a woman trying to cope with the fact that she was abandoned by her famous mother at an early age. It's actually tragic. Sophie Marceau delivers a great performance as the main character, and the child actors whom play her as a child are also very natural (the sign of a great director who can bring out the best in children in front of a camera). The film is not brilliant because the gay friend character is presented a bit too superficially and the whole ending is a bit too stereotypically "Hollywood Happy End." Still, an enjoyable drama that raises several topics for discussion: how do you feel about a mature woman hooking up with a man that is half her age? How are the cultures of America and France different when it comes to romantic relationships and sex? How do you handle the fact that your mother chose her career over you? Enjoy the film and discuss!

As a casual watcher and older woman, I enjoyed this movie very much. I also relate to the main character's experience of raising herself. I recommend watching without expectations and entirely. This movie is hauntingly hopeful.

This film is a good reflection of Director's Lisa Azuelos' complicated childhood, especially her relationship with her mother Marie Laforêt, who was a prominent French singer in the 1960/70ies. Basing the flashback scenes on her strong personal insight allows Lisa Azuelos to flesh out the character played by wonderful Sophie Marceau. The film is also providing a modern outlook at taking a new start, re-booting one's life in a different country and with different relationships. I personally liked a lot the character playing Sophie's friend, Luka. Some may see him as a stereotype but he adds a lot of good vibes and positive emotions to the story, something that we all need at the moment!

This movie took me by surprise... I imagined it was a romcom but it's in fact very deep... in a French way. The wittiness of Luka can be lost in the plain English subtitles tho for the English speaking viewers. Sometimes it reminded me of Pedro Almodovar cinema too... Sophie Marceau is the ONLY person for the role , she's fantastic. I will never forget the line « We leave our mother twice, when we are born and when she dies »... Watching this movie was an uplifting experience as it touches on love and tenderness, two things our world badly needs these days...