A Difficult Year

A Difficult Year (Une année difficile, 2023) is a French comedy from the directors of Intouchables — Olivier Nakache and Éric Toledano — and you can watch it online on iFILM. Pio Marmai and Jonathan Cohen play Albert and Bruno, two lifelong friends united by one shared talent: spending money they do not have.

Buried in debt and dodging creditors, the pair stumble into a group of passionate young eco-activists. The appeal is simple — free food, friendly faces, no one asking about overdue payments. Noémie Merlant plays a woman who believes in the cause completely, and falls for a man who signed up for the snacks. Mathieu Amalric turns up as a figure whose motives are harder to read.

Nakache and Toledano play the premise for laughs but let some sharper observations about consumerism and convenience slip through. Stream A Difficult Year (2023) online on iFILM.