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Film Search
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Microbe and Gasoline
Adventure, Comedy
Turns out that typical teen-boy obsessions—boobs and bullies—are pretty much the same even when they're subtitled. So the latest from writer-director Michel Gondry feels very familiar and very slight, lacking the fantastical whimsy of some of his earlier films and coasting on the barely-there charms of its young misfits. Fourteen-year-old Daniel (Ange Dargent)—a sensitive artist called Microbe by classmates because he's so small for his age—finds a pal in new boy Théo (Théophile Baquet), who is instantly nicknamed Gasoline by the cool kids, because that's what he always smells like. The movie is half over before it finally embarks on its grand adventure, as the boys build their own car—Gasoline smells that way for a reason; he's good with engines—and take off for a summer of driving around rural France. The few truly clever and amusing moments revolve around the disguise they invent for their completely un-road-worthy vehicle—that it really does fool the cops is a joke in itself—but with their adolescent angst as passengers, the boys’ homemade car is covering already well-trod ground.
Official Site: screenmediafilms.net/productions/details/1730/Microbe-and-Gasoline
Director: Michel Gondry
Producer: Georges Bermann
Cast: Ange Dargent, Théophile Baquet, Diane Besnier, Audrey Tautou, Vincent Lamoureux, Agathe Peigney, Douglas Brosset, Charles Raymond, Ferdinand Roux-Balme and Marc Delarue
Director: Michel Gondry
Producer: Georges Bermann
Cast: Ange Dargent, Théophile Baquet, Diane Besnier, Audrey Tautou, Vincent Lamoureux, Agathe Peigney, Douglas Brosset, Charles Raymond, Ferdinand Roux-Balme and Marc Delarue
