TL;DR – It lives up to its title in interesting ways    

Score – 3 out of 5 stars

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene

Review –

In my time reviewing films I have seen a lot of movies about older men trying to recapture their youth by chasing after young women, and those few moments that the reverse is true they always seem to be directed by men. Well, today we review a film directed by a woman with that perspective clearly intact. Though before I dive in, I should preface this with this is a film that very much lives up to its title, and I am pretty sure everyone knows what MILF is, if you don’t then this is probably not the film for you and also maybe don’t google that.

So to set the scene, three friends are on their way to the coast to have a holiday of sorts from their jobs in Paris. Cécile (Virginie Ledoyen) is there to get her holiday house ready for sale after the death of her husband and her friends Sonia (Marie-Josée Croze) and Elise (Axelle Laffont) have come for support. Well while out on the bay going for a sail they come across several young men like Julian (Matthias Dandois) and Paul (Waël Sersoub) out on the water, and things take a turn when an unintended butt dial leaves everyone single and guilt-free.

One thing the film makes abundantly clear is that these are all real friends which is essential for the film to work as well as it does. They have an instant connection with banter and shorthand that comes from knowing each other for a long time. Even when they fight, there is a bond there and understanding that you don’t see that often.

There is a certain amount of ridiculous in this film that you have to go with. For example, in one moment they are having lunch and then the next they are racing horses down the beach with wild abandon. In one scene, they have a literal MILF alarm flashing in the top right corner of the screen. This is not a subtle film. It is also a VERY French film. This means that there is a lot of sex and nudity, most of it didn’t seem to gratuitous and much less than some other popular properties from the last couple of years. But if nudity or sex scenes make you uncomfortable, this is not the film for you.

One of the things that impressed me with this film is that they didn’t take any of the easy routes out, these characters are complicated, and the film is deeper because of it. Each of the characters is bringing their baggage to their relationship, and that has an impact on the directions the film takes. This also flows into the ending of the film that reaches a very natural conclusion for most of the characters.      

While there are a lot of interesting things going on here, not all of them land. There are subplots with characters an older man and a younger woman that distract from the narrative. They just feel out of place, like they are trying to say something but they are not given the screen time to come together. Also, there is a subplot where one of the women’s 16-year-old son is sleeping with a 26-year-old camp councillor, and they are all chill with it. Which well YIKES. Finally, the film at the start felt like it was going to be a lot weirder than what we ended up getting and well it would have been better to lean into that a bit more.

In the end, do we recommend MILF? Well look, you already know if this is a film from you from the title alone. It is a mostly empowering look at a situation that we have seen reversed many times before. The characters are mostly interesting, and the story does what it needs to do. If you like MILF, I would also recommend Portrait of a Lady on Fire (Portrait de la Jeune Fille en Feu).   

By Brian MacNamara: You can follow Brian on Twitter Here, when he’s not chatting about Movies and TV, he’ll be talking about International Relations, or the Solar System.

Have you watched MILF?, let us know what you thought in the comments below, feel free to share this review on any of the social medias, and you can follow us Here. Check out all our past reviews and articles Here, and have a happy day. 

Credits – All images were created by the cast, crew, and production companies of MILF
Directed by – Axelle Laffont
Story by – Jérôme L’hotsky & Stéphane Kramer
Screenplay by – Axelle Laffont, Jean-François Halin, Alain Layrac, Jonathan Cohen, David Lanzmann & Lilou Fogli
Music by – Benjamin Molinaro
Cinematography by – Pierre Aïm
Edited by – Clemence Samson
Production/Distribution Companies – Single Man Productions, StudioCanal & Netflix
Starring – Marie-Josée Croze, Virginie Ledoyen, Axelle Laffont, Waël Sersoub, Matthias Dandois, Victor Meutelet, Rémi Pedevilla, Florence Thomassin, Jérômine Chass, Mitty Hazanavicius & Pauline Bression
Rating – Australia: MA15+;