I would have no problem recommending Oliver Assayas’s newest film, Non-Fiction, but it won’t be for everyone. It’s smart and funny, for sure, but it’s also somewhat niche – and maybe a bit bourgeoisie. Its characters are French upper-class intellectual types that, while not greedy or out of touch, are sometimes just a hair shy of pretentious. Non-Fiction occupies a world that may seem foreign to some and uninteresting to others, but for me, it checked enough of the right boxes to put a smile on my face.
The story revolves around Alain (Guillaume Canet), the head of a prestigious French publishing house. His wife Selena (Juliette Binoche) is a successful television actress who’s growing tired of her role as a T.V. cop (“She’s a crisis manager,” she reminds fans). Léonard (Vincent Macaigne) is a controversial and semi-successful writer who’s been with Alain’s house for many years. His wife, Valérie (Nora Hamzawi), the right hand to a political candidate, is supportive but completely honest and no-nonsense, much to Léonard’s chagrin.
The role of books, literature, politics, and art – and how they relate to commerce, their roles in modern society, and what the future holds for them – are the topics of many conversations at dinner parties filled with wine and fancy food. These types of exchanges – or more accurately, the bohemian intellectuals having them – usually annoy me. Non-Fiction, however, kept my interest piqued due to the simple fact that, at my day job as a librarian (believe it or not, I don’t get paid much to write about movies) these very same conversations are normal occurrences. It’s in these long scenes, in which all manner of high-end thoughtfulness is on display, that Non-Fiction is at its most interesting (albeit niche, as I mentioned).
The dialogue is often a bit too hoity-toity and faux-intellectual for my taste, but the subject matter makes up for it and the characters are all very likable and well-acted. Their personal lives may intertwine in the typical French style (lots of affairs and suspicions), but everyone manages a sympathetic humanity that’s hard to deny or dislike. Non-Fiction isn’t exactly a page-turner, but there’s enough to latch onto, especially if, like me, the nerdy librarian, you’re interested in publishing and its future.
James is a writer, skateboarder, record collector, wrestling nerd, and tabletop gamer living with his family in Asheville, North Carolina. He is a member of the Southeastern Film Critics Association, the North Carolina Film Critics Association, and contributes to The Daily Orca, Razorcake Magazine, Mountain Xpress, and Asheville Movies.