PAUL KIRCHER, IDIR AZOUGLI IN METEORS

A deed-end rural coming-of-ager

Debuting at Cannes last May, Meteors focuses on three late-twenties young "losers" in rural France (Mika (Paul Kircher, one of France's brightest young actors), Dan ( César-nominated Idir Azougli) and Tony (Salif Cissé, rather underused), and follows to see who will succeed and who will fail. The actors are excellent; the story is depressing. The setting is what is called in the film the "upper Marne," and explained by Jessica Kiang in her Variety review penned at the film's Cannes Un Certain Regard debut as "the sparsely populated swath of France that extends southwest from the borders of Belgium and Luxembourg to the Pyrenees: the 'diagonale du vide' or 'empty diagonal'."

The idea of a "nowhere land" is a persistent one in France: the idea that nowhere matters but Paris and if you want to be somebody, you have to go there; the idea that provincial France, if you remain there, will pull you down and keep you from really succeeding. To be a Frenchman, you must be a Parisian. The backlash against this also exists: the resentment toward Paris as a pseudo-important city and Parisians as snobs and pretenders. Meteors seems to perpetuate this picture with its story of three young men two of whom basically fail. An AlloCiné viewer's comment says Meteors "mixes genres, buddy comedy, social drama, thriller, and melodrama, and creates a seemingly personal film about male friendship and dependence," but it almost seems to me most of all a horror film.

Tony, who is Black, is the industrious one. He has organized a kind of sub-business of local employees who work in his waste disposal business. At first we see all three together at a bowling alley partying just as they did as teens. Later on the film focuses mostly on the unhealthily codependent buddy relationship of the kooky, doomed Dan, who has pointless dreams and dangerous schemes, such as moving to Madagascar to look after street dogs, and the dull but well-meaning Mika, who works in a Burger King. Dan's harebrained idea of stealing a neighbor's Maine Coon cat with Mika as the getaway driver results in their both getting on six months probation, and the escape of the cat.

Mika and Dan see a female social services officer who examines their case. To fare well with the judge in six months, and for Mika to regain his driver's license, she tells them they must have proper housing (they are couch surfing) and both must have proper jobs (including Dan). Since Tony has begun a big job at the local nuclear waste plant, Dan slides in with him and at first Mika too. When Dan has an epileptic fit on the job, the resulting medical exam reveals that he already has serious liver damage from his continual drinking, but when he learns this he just goes on drinking. Mika stops drinking and smoking. Later, Dan disappears at the waste plant. No one can find him. This is deemed not unusual.

At the film's end Mika receives a letter from Dan, which may or may not be real and offer a ray of hope. Overall the feeling is of the disintegration of youth directly into a state of no-exit maturity. The convincing image of the film is of Mika and Dan's toxic, tragic relationship. Kircher and Azougli turn in superb performances, but they cannot save the dead-end plot.

This is the Saint-Dizier-born Charuel's second feature based in his home region, the first, quite different in import, having been the 2017 Bloody Milk/Petit paysan, about a desperate small dairy farmer who finds one of his cows sick and tries to hide it because of the danger of having to kill the whole herd and being ruined. This succeeded because of a solider theme and also the lead played by the fine Swann Arlaud, whose specialness shows up in better and better roles, including a key witness in Ozon's By the Grace of God (2019) and the lawyer in Triet's Anatomy of a Fall (2023). Charuel and his writing partner were trapped in pure drear with the oddly named Meteors. This film is another sincere and dedicated depiction of the region, but the action has too little spark and the characters wind up seeming one-note despite the excellent actors portraying them.

Meteors/Météors, Debuted May 2025 at Un Certain Regard in the Cannes Festival. Ir opened Oct. 8, 2025 in France, receiving an AlloCiné press rating of 3.6=72% (spectators ditto). It was screened for this review as part of the Rendez-Vous with French Cinema at Lincoln Center (Mar. 5-15, 2026). Showtimes:
Monday, March 9 at 6:00pm – Q&A with Salif Cissé
Wednesday, March 11 at 3:30pm

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©Chris Knipp. Blog: http://chrisknipp.blogspot.com/.