‘The Balconettes’ Review: Noémie Merlant’s Sweaty Midsummer #MeToo Ghost Story
variety.comGuy Lodge Film Critic For crisp tension or thematic clarity, nothing in “The Balconettes” quite outdoes the nearly self-contained, minutes-long short that opens actor-director Noémie Merlant‘s frenzied, heatstruck genre mashup.
On a 115-degree summer afternoon in a wilting, AC-challenged Marseilles apartment block, a put-upon middle-aged wife passes out on her balcony.
Roused with a splash of water by her boorish husband, who demands she get back to her chores, the poor woman breaks: Getting to her feet, she whacks him unconscious with a steel dustpan, smothers him with a towel, and sits on him for good measure until all life seeps out of his body.
With not a scrap of backstory required, this immensely satisfying vignette earns the film an early round of cheers. That’s the last we see of this character’s plight, save for a brief shot later of her being led away from the building by police. (Cue some boos to complement the earlier cheers.) Instead, “The Balconettes” pivots to a neighboring apartment, where a younger trio of women take extreme action in the face of unacceptable male behavior.
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