Karry Best movie of this year hands down!

BroadcastChic Excellent, a Must See

Rio Hayward All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Quiet Muffin This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

Sumita Sinha A young woman who 'terrible' at work (not sexist of course because this movie is set in the 1950's) falls for an older boss. For some strange reason, the man only admires her typing skills and pushes her on the win typing 'championships' but she has to stay in his house. Lovely clothes, make-up and sets do not make up for a pointless story. It is not even funny, the hero's face is funny and you expect some funny turns which never arrive. The problem with the heroine's father is never described or resolved. The man doesn't even give up his cigarettes after he wins the woman, although she hates his smoking. Another pointless addition is the graphic sex scene. I was so bored, couldn't wait for this drivel to finish so that I could get out.

Nobody-27 "Populaire" is finely crafted piece of junk that I could barely watch to the end; and watch it I did, but mostly in the same way that one is rubber-necking when passing a really bad car accident.While the sets and performances manage to give us a kitschy feel of the 60s, everything else falls flat on its face: the story is dull, predictable and forced to the same degree that "Armageddon" was forced. Yes I am comparing this film to "Armageddon" - they both share an important "quality" (for lack of a better word): artificially created drama to keep the story moving. In Armageddon, every time the story slows down too much there is a meteor shower, while in "Populaire" boredom is interrupted by senseless arguments between main protagonists - meteor showers of different kinds.Characters are ill-conceived, their motivations inexplicable, their actions everything but funny, and as a result, the film flows like a stale joke told by a three-year old who forgot the punch-line.Someone said that this is a "feel-good" film. Nothing could be further from the truth. Even if we ignore the overly sexist world of this film in which men are gods and women are ordered around, we are still left with a sadistic boss who never manages to be likable, his little less psychotic secretary whose motivation is unclear to the very end and their family and friends who manage to stay boring despite suffering from severe mental problems.We never get to believe that the main protagonist really wishes to compete in the speed-typing. As a matter of fact, the only reason she accepts the challenge is because it was a condition for her employment. Why would a boss employ an otherwise useless secretary just to have her compete in speed-typing? None of those things make any sense in the film, we are just supposed to accept that speed-typing was a world-class event in the 60s (it was not), that your average boss is crazy about your winning a meaningless competition, and that women were aching to work as secretaries, while male bosses were naturally psychotic, and that all that was fun somehow. To make it harder to suspend one's disbelief, the main protagonist is showed typing in an entirely impossible manner. Normally, actors and directors go out of their way to try and portray such detail with as much realism as possible, but here, the director has thrown caution to the wind, probably in an attempt to make the film less boring; however, it achieved the exact opposite.Here and there it seemed that "Populaire" was meant to be a little quirky, the way "Delicatessen" or "Amelie" was... or maybe I just wished for some redemption for the time wasted watching it. As you may guess by now, that didn't pan either.In the end what we are left with is an inexplicably dumb premise, with shallow characters, leading us on a wild-goose chase of forced emotions and relationships. All in all, one of the worst films of recent French cinema.

hinforr Well, I suppose some would say it is a comedy. In fact it is not really funny. Of course sometimes, occasionally, it might raise a smile, of sorts. But it is stretching it to call it a comedy. If it had been made in the 1950's or early 1960's when it is supposed to be set, rather uncertainly - there are inconsistencies in the set that could go towards its goof count - it might have interest as a historical document. But to think that this was made as late as 2012 begs questions of values the production team and others involved (except perhaps for the actors, who would always appreciate a crust of bread.) And it begs a similar question about those who were rating it as highly as they did.The "girls", adult women, are treated as performing chimpanzees, set up to compete - in the final showdown indeed in a non-contact cat-fight, as speed typists, the acme and ultimate ambition for women in the man's world that is/was an office. The romantic line running through it, that may allow some to ignore the reality of what the film said it was about, is really thin and full of stereotypes, and the final denouement is sad in its predictability. Really, have they learnt and understood nothing about the relations between the sexes, patronising bosses (patrons), lecherous bosses' sons, equal opportunity, sexism and discrimination and so on. It is not a question of "political correctness", just of maturity in film-making. This is not mature. Who was the intended film audience, what were they wanting to say to those people? That that was some halycon, good-old-days ? There is a place for re-creating old film styles. For a brilliant film that does successfully to the highest degree, by contrast with this, see:he Artist another French films made only a year earlier in 2011, also called a romantic comedy-drama (written, directed, and co-edited by Michel Hazanavicius). Ironically that film also had Bérénice Bejo who deservedly was praised for he part. In this film there was nothing that she could have done. Or anyone for that. Sorry folks, that's all!

Gordon-11 This film is about a woman who is a bad secretary, but a super fast typist. Her boss employs her just to enter typing competitions."Populaire" tells a story of a girl who is shot down by almost everyone in her life. She treasures her job as a secretary, but she is just not up to it. Her boss trains her intensely for the typing competitions. Along her way to glory, she encounters supportive acquaintances and a complicated love affair. The story is very engaging, and the music during typing competitions are very pleasing to hear as well. Rose is a sweet and hardworking girl, she is a lovable character that connects with the viewers. To see Rose getting all the attention she deserves, and even more, is very satisfying, the ending is so poignant that will surely captivate anyone. Who would have thought, that a film about a machine that is irrelevant in today's society would be so intensely engaging?