Dir. Louis Clichy · 2026 · about 90 min · French (original title Le Corset) · in French cinemas since 14 October
Christophe is a boy of ten or eleven on a family farm that is struggling to stay afloat. His father is a silent, hard man who expects a certain kind of son. Then Christophe's body starts to let him down: he topples over without warning, in class and on picture day, and the school portrait comes out half a face. Doctors prescribe a stiff iron corset to be worn day and night. It holds him upright, and it also lifts him out of the only life he knew, the farm work that was his way of earning his father's approval. That is where the story starts, and where this review stops.
Everything published so far starts with the picture. Clichy, a former Pixar animator who also co-directed two Asterix films, has made a first solo feature that is painted by hand in watercolour, with a brush-and-ink look that critics describe as textured and alive rather than polished. One reviewer singles out recurring moments where gravity is upended, and a finale praised for its visual ambition. It is drawn from the director's own childhood in farm country, and reviewers read that as the reason the small details feel specific: a girl dodging a bus fare, an elderly church-organ teacher, a family that loves the boy and does not know how to help him.
Mistakes are met with mercy, not punishment.
Nick Ruhrkraut, AwardsWatch
The writing gets the same praise. Critics call it a film for children that does not talk down to them, one that lets a father-son conflict stay unresolved long enough to hurt without handing out blame. Reviewers also single out the supporting characters, Christophe's brother JB among them, as fully drawn. The film arrived at Cannes in Un Certain Regard, went on to Annecy, where it took three awards (the Jury Award, the Audience Award and the Gan Foundation Award for Distribution), and has played at Toronto.
There is little to hold against it, and that is itself worth noting. The nearest thing to a split is a matter of degree: one critic ranks it a close second at Cannes, another gives it a respectable 70 on Metacritic where the rest of the page is higher, and one points out that its premise is fairly ordinary. Another notes that JB's inner life is given less room than Christophe's. If you want a film that surprises you with its plot, the praise is mostly about how it is told, not what happens.
Almost unanimous. Metacritic lists nine reviews, all positive, and Rotten Tomatoes is reported at 100% from a small early sample. French press is just as warm. That agreement is why the score below is high; it is also a small sample from festival and opening-week critics, which tends to run kind.
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Anyone who likes animation that looks like someone made it with their hands, and parents who are tired of children's films that confuse noise with feeling. It is a gentle film about a hard thing, a boy told to hold himself straight, and the reviews suggest it is as much for the adults in the room as for the child.
It opened in French cinemas on 14 October and has played festivals including Cannes, Annecy and Toronto. Release dates for other countries are not confirmed in the sources used here, and availability varies by country, so check your local cinema listings or festival programmes.