Just an illusion: the criticism for/against the new Nakache-Toledano

The duo’s winning return to the genre of moving comedy in which they excel or a cinema of colorless vignettes locked in clichés? The editorial staff of Première is divided.

FOR

Bouncing back after failure is never easy. Not to mention flop (900,000 admissions), the last Nakache-Toledano, A Difficult Year, was poorly received. And rather than struggling to continue in this more ironic and therefore divisive style of humor which goes poorly with their DNA, they decided with Juste une illusion, to return to basics. This living together is often looked down upon to which they know how to give its letters of nobility. And this whatever its perimeter. Family (So close), associative (Out of the norm), friendly (Our happy days), professional (The Sense of celebration) or all combined like here. Because Just an Illusion is a multiple film. The story of a father facing the downgrading of unemployment while his wife dynamites all the glass ceilings at her job. The hectic organization of a Bar mitzvah. A teenager’s first crush on the most beautiful girl in his school. The daily life of a family impacted by all these events.

Nakache and Toledano interweave all these intrigues with a fluidity that is never faulted as they interweave moments of laughter and emotion. There is a purity in their writing (situations as well as characters), a keen sense of the popular and a talent of conductors capable of bringing together and making resonate together soloists each coming with their style and their universe – Louis Garrel, Camille Cottin, Pierre Lottin, irresistible. Finally, there is this way of looking back on the past with mischievous nostalgia. The 80s are everywhere on the screen, in the decor, the costumes, the looks as in the soundtrack but without the slightest claim “it was better before”. Inspired by their youth, this film transcends both autobiography and period film. Generosity in capital letters

Thierry Cheze

AGAINST

The “big” politically correct narrative of the star duo of the popular auteur comedy seriously fizzled out just as it was entering an openly militant world (the problematic A Difficult Year with its poorly caricatured green activists). It is one thing to distill a cuddly humanism between two valves, another to explore its internal fractures within the same space of thought. Until now saved by sentimental-playful writing, the films could all at once evoke racism, autism, social and cultural inequalities, etc., while satisfying almost everyone. This Just an Illusion operates a nostalgic withdrawal through the exploration of the more or less respective childhoods of the two directors, at this precise moment (their hero is 13 years old) where the brutality of reality imposes itself on us, where the weight of its origins can weigh tons… We always build ourselves a little against it.

Problem is, this cinema, kind by nature, refuses confrontation or at least doesn’t really know what to do with it. And so here we are with our arms dangling in front of a nice toddler encapsulated in an eighties bubble where everything is kept at a distance apart from the clichés specific to this kind of introspection: “grandchild” parents who are both protective and failing, a rock’n’roll older brother who is adored but brittle, a crush from the big Catholic bourgeoisie who is inevitably unattainable… Let’s rest assured, the scenario will put a bandage on all the semi-open wounds. If with The Fabelmans, Spielberg made cinematic illusion the engine of self-reflection reshaped by the magical power of his medium, Toledano-Nakache never manages to question the perception of their own memories and delivers a colorless “vignettes” cinema.

Thomas Baura

By Olivier Nakache and Eric Toledano. With Camille Cottin, Louis Garrel, Pierre Lottin… Duration: 1h54. Released April 15, 2026