Bye Bye Morons

Bye Bye Morons (Adieu les cons, 2020) is Albert Dupontel's French tragicomedy, available to watch online on iFILM. At forty-three, hairdresser Suze learns from her doctor that she doesn't have long left. So she sets out to find the son she was forced to give up at fifteen.

The paperwork is a fortress, but help arrives from strange corners. First there's JB, a burnt-out government IT man caught mid-suicide attempt at his own desk. Then Mr. Blin, a blind archivist whose runaway enthusiasm more than makes up for what he can't see. This mismatched trio tears across the city, hacking databases and dodging police as the search for the child becomes a race against the clock. Virginie Efira plays Suze, Dupontel himself takes JB, and Terry Gilliam turns up in a small role.

Dupontel built a bitterly funny satire of a digital world where a person barely exists without the right line in a registry, then warmed it with real tenderness. The film swept seven César Awards, including Best Film, Director and Screenplay. It's that rare thing that makes you laugh and choke up in the same breath. Stream Bye Bye Morons (2020) online on iFILM.