Categories: Concerts

Review: Full Time

Julie, a single mother of two played by Laure Calamy, lives in the Parisian suburbs but works tirelessly as the head housemaid for a five-star hotel located in the heart of Paris. Her daily routine begins by waking up the children and gathering herself for a lengthy, claustrophobic commute. Once she drops the children off with her discontented neighbor Madame Lusigny, played by Geneviève Mnich, Julie’s hectic morning has only just started. She rushes to work in a frenetic sequence of trains and buses, crammed with fellow commuters, and when she finally arrives at work, responsibilities swallow the remainder of her time. But Julie plans to secure a higher-paying job that would liberate her from this unyielding routine. With zero flexibility in Julie’s schedule, Full Time rapidly transforms into a subtle, adrenaline-packed horror film as her routine crumbles in the face of city-wide transit strikes.

Full Time delivers an unnerving, familiar story about our mundane routines. Director Eric Gravel’s film is a panic-inducing, hyper-realist thriller with the commute starring as its harrowing villain. The film draws attention to the mounting stress that accompanies change by showing the complete breakdown of Julie’s job and travel security. Simultaneously, Julie attempts to impress a new company, hide her intentions from her current bosses, and care for her children’s travel without reliable transportation. Although it feels strange that the film ignores the details of the transit strike, this generates a heightened sense of futility. What can we do when infrastructure breaks down? Gravel expertly captures the panic that occurs alongside displacement. Not to mention, Calamy delivers a wonderfully sympathetic and complicated performance as Julie. Despite lacking depth about the strikes themselves, Full Time offers a personal commentary situated against capitalism’s anchors, and to this capacity, the film succeeds in showing how people struggle under the weight of their occupations and debt. 88 min.

Music Box Theatre