My first thought was, “This doesn’t seem noisy or urgent or hooky enough.” (I’m sorry but I trust my trailer instincts.) My second thought was that I’ll always be wary of movies titles composed of two cutesy nicknames (Tango and Cash, Minnie and Moskovitz). My third thought was, “Michel Gondry is a respected, brand-name director so why didn’t this film, which opened in France 10 months ago, at least play the festival circuit”? Answer: Certain festivals blew it off. So there you go.
From Peter Debruge’s Variety 7.9.15 review: “If Michel Gondry’s movies were books, they’d come with hand-stitched covers, fold-out pop-ups and a progression of flipbook-style doodles in the bottom corner of every page. With Microbe and Gasoline, the French writer-director has wisely restrained his usual flourishes, allowing the two teenage leads in his relatively calm summer-vacation coming-of-age comedy to assume centerstage, imbuing them with creative agency rather than forcing them to compete with the film’s own style. What emerges is an admittedly small but wonderfully sincere portrait of two adolescent outsiders determined to pave their own way in the world.”
