A One Mann’s Movies review of “Enzo” (From the 2025 London Film Festival). (2025, 3.5*, ’15’).
No, not an early prequel to “Ferrari“. “Enzo” came across to me as a French-set variant of “Call Me By Your Name” – a heady teenage coming-of-age drama set against a rich lifestyle and exotic locations.
One Mann’s Movies Rating:
Plot:
16-year-old Enzo turns his back on his rich family’s expectations for his life and trains as a brickie on a building site. There he meets and befriends two Ukrainian friends who make him question who he is.
Certification:
UK: NR; US: NR. (This film has not yet been rated by the BBFC but I would expect it to be a ’15’ due to language and some sexual content.)
Talent:
Starring: Eloy Poh, Pierfrancesco Favino, Élodie Bouchez, Maksym Slivinskyi, Nathan Japy, Vladislav Holyk, Malou Khebizi, Philippe Petit.
Directed by: Robin Campillo.
Written by: Robin Campillo & Laurent Cantet. (Based on a story by Gilles Marchand.)
Running Time: 1h 42m.
Summary:
Positives:
- An interesting and engaging story: with Enzo a parent’s worst nightmare.
- Topical Ukranian war content.
- Dreamy locations: you can almost feel the sun seeping out of the screen.
Negatives:
- The story never really feels concluded.
- Gratuitous shots of Ms Bouchez.
Full Review of “Enzo”:
A truly frustrating teen.
Enzo (Eloy Pohu) makes for a highly frustrating character and one that makes me thankful my kids have all now long-since navigated their teenage years! He has everything going for him: loving parents; successful siblings; wealth; a luxurious villa to live in. He is also uniquely talented as an artist, with a skill for drawing.
But he just turns his back on all of this, exhibiting a wilful tendency to self-harm his future. He is also racked with self-doubt: when his father describes Enzo as a “dropout”, Enzo chips in “I’m not a dropout. I’m just useless”. (I was rather reminded of a French version of Marty McFly in the future McFly household!)
“Paint me like one of your French girls”
Enzo’s other issue is one of his sexuality. A good-looking boy, he has no issue with attracting the attention of the school hottie Amina (Malou Khebizi). But then you begin to question why he would reject the chance for her to model like one of the nude statues he likes to draw! As the film progresses we see his attraction grow towards the manly Ukrainian Vlad (Maksym Slivinskyi) and you wonder whether at some point his builder-buddy will become Vlad the Impaler! (Sorry, couldn’t resist). But that would be telling.
The discussion of Enzo, at 16 years old, being “under-age” for a sexual relationship with anyone rather confused me though. I thought – perhaps I am wrong? – that the age of consent in France for anyone consenting (outside of families) was 15 years old.
Ukrainian issues.
This film makes you realise that we haven’t seen much reference in fictional movies to the current Ukrainian conflict. But here we have Vlad (Maksym Slivinskyi) and Miroslav (Vladislav Holyk) as two Ukrainians torn between maintaining their current lifestyle and nationality in France and returning to fight for their home country. The references to fellow comrades is touching and topical.
Interesting use of subtitles.
For a foreign language film, I was intrigued by the use of the subtitles. For whole periods of the film, there are no subtitles used over the dialogue. That’s because the majority of these scenes are in Ukrainian and we are viewing the events through the eyes of Enzo. Enzo doesn’t understand what is being said and so neither do we!
But I also found it interesting that subtitles were sometimes excluded for French-spoken segments where the dialogue was just random chit-chat on motorbikes where the meaning could be inferred. I found this quite a refreshing and grown-up approach.
The sounds of summer.
As in the recent “The Kingdom“, the opening titles are played over the sound of cicadas and it sets the scene for the sun-baked drama to come. As we head into the UK Autumn and Winter, it’s a welcome burst of additional summer-sun. The whole film feels suffused with heat to match the growing passion.
Late in the film, we move to an even hotter location: some ruins (I’d love to know what ruins?) in Italy. It’s here where the story concludes, although I wasn’t wholly convinced that the ending satisfied me fully.
A hot summer night.
One element that I think the (male) director, Robin Campillo, misjudged was in a night-time scene of Marion (Élodie Bouchez) and Paulo (Pierfrancesco Favino) in bed. The camera lazily tracks over the naked torso and breasts of Marion. Fair enough, you think, when it’s a swelteringly hot summer night then sleeping au natural is the sensible thing to do. But then we get to Paulo and he’s fully dressed in a T-shirt and shorts! This rather made the naked shot of the – admittedly very attractive – Ms Bouchez feel wholly gratuitous.
Summary Thoughts:
Unlike many, I was not particularly won over by “Call Me By Your Name“, which “Enzo” strongly reminded me of. But – and perhaps because I was more in the right mindset for this one – I enjoyed this film much more. It’s a tad on the ‘slight’ side, story-wise, but well worth your attention at the LFF or when it gets a general release in due course.
Tickets for the London Film Festival showings on the 8th and 15th (2 showings) October are currently sold out, but here is the booking web site to check for returns or other showings.
Where to watch?
Trailer:
The trailer is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9D3zLu_zliw.
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