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Chicken for Linda!, 2023
Linda (Melinee Leclerc) is wrongly accused of theft by her mother, Paulette (Clotilde Hesme). When Paulette realizes her mistake, she offers to make things up to Linda, who requests a meal of chicken and peppers, one of the few memories she has of her deceased father. Chaos ensues as the pair steal a chicken from a neighbor, then go on a quest to find someone to help them kill and cook it. Along the way, police officer Serge (Esteban) gets caught up in the madness.
Engaging visuals don’t quite save a culinary quest that goes on too long.
Several years ago I was impressed by the animated film The Girl Without Hands from this same directorial pair. As with that film, Chicken for Linda! uses a bold animation style, where characters are more blobs of color floating in a black-lined frame. It’s a painterly universe, creating an interesting contrast with the very real, day-to-day experiences that are being portrayed.
The concept itself is also very powerful. Food is such a foundational part of family culture and memory. We know when something “tastes like childhood,” and the film is able to capture just how much this simple dish means to Linda and, by extension, Paulette.
For the most part, I liked the characters, especially the befuddled Serge. Paulette’s harried, anxious sister Astrid (Laetitia Dosch) really adds some comedy to the proceedings, and a romance that begins to blossom between Astrid and Serge is really sweet.
Overall, however, I struggled with this film specifically in the way that it treats the titular chicken. I don’t object to the idea of eating meat, or killing an animal for food. But I strongly believe that animals need to be treated in an ethical manner, and the chicken in this film most certainly is not. The things that Linda does in an attempt to catch or kill the chicken made me viscerally disgusted. I could feel myself fully uncouple from her as a character when she first throws the chicken out a second story window and then, when that is unsuccessful, attempts to snag the chicken on a barbed fishing hook. Linda, you’re a sociopath. And the most the movie tried to put quirky music under these sequences, the more I was like, “Gross. These people are gross.”
I also feel as though the story goes on a bit too long, by about 15 or even 20 minutes. This is one of those movies where the characters rush from place to place, accumulating more and more characters racing around with them and leading up to a crowded finale. But after the first 15 or so minutes of adventuring, it takes on an episodic feel and lacks flow.
Great animation style, but loses many points for the animal stuff.
Chicken for Linda!, 2023
Linda (Melinee Leclerc) is wrongly accused of theft by her mother, Paulette (Clotilde Hesme). When Paulette realizes her mistake, she offers to make things up to Linda, who requests a meal of chicken and peppers, one of the few memories she has of her deceased father. Chaos ensues as the pair steal a chicken from a neighbor, then go on a quest to find someone to help them kill and cook it. Along the way, police officer Serge (Esteban) gets caught up in the madness.
Engaging visuals don’t quite save a culinary quest that goes on too long.
Several years ago I was impressed by the animated film The Girl Without Hands from this same directorial pair. As with that film, Chicken for Linda! uses a bold animation style, where characters are more blobs of color floating in a black-lined frame. It’s a painterly universe, creating an interesting contrast with the very real, day-to-day experiences that are being portrayed.
The concept itself is also very powerful. Food is such a foundational part of family culture and memory. We know when something “tastes like childhood,” and the film is able to capture just how much this simple dish means to Linda and, by extension, Paulette.
For the most part, I liked the characters, especially the befuddled Serge. Paulette’s harried, anxious sister Astrid (Laetitia Dosch) really adds some comedy to the proceedings, and a romance that begins to blossom between Astrid and Serge is really sweet.
Overall, however, I struggled with this film specifically in the way that it treats the titular chicken. I don’t object to the idea of eating meat, or killing an animal for food. But I strongly believe that animals need to be treated in an ethical manner, and the chicken in this film most certainly is not. The things that Linda does in an attempt to catch or kill the chicken made me viscerally disgusted. I could feel myself fully uncouple from her as a character when she first throws the chicken out a second story window and then, when that is unsuccessful, attempts to snag the chicken on a barbed fishing hook. Linda, you’re a sociopath. And the most the movie tried to put quirky music under these sequences, the more I was like, “Gross. These people are gross.”
I also feel as though the story goes on a bit too long, by about 15 or even 20 minutes. This is one of those movies where the characters rush from place to place, accumulating more and more characters racing around with them and leading up to a crowded finale. But after the first 15 or so minutes of adventuring, it takes on an episodic feel and lacks flow.
Great animation style, but loses many points for the animal stuff.