Fantasia 2026: I Love Paris Review

This will be one of many reviews during this year’s Fantasia International Film Festival, to keep up with our latest coverage, click here.

Mockumentary is a fairly fascinating genre that allows filmmakers to analyze and satirize multiple themes. Films like Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping and This Is Spinal Tap are a few examples of films that have mocked famous artists. Now, director Nicky Murphy takes a shot at the new generation of pop stars with I Love Paris. The film follows Paris (Thiboult), a young singer who dreams of playing at a relevant festival in the French capital. Followed by a videographer who documents her career, she aims for the big stage. However, she does not get selected for the gig, leading to disappointment. Suddenly, Paris becomes a vampire, bitten by someone who wants her to live forever and become a huge star. From there, the singer found herself terrorizing the Parisian music scene with her violence and thirst for success.

On paper, the premise of I Love Paris is very simple: a singer, her obsession, and now, her thirst for blood. Within the opening minutes, its approach is similar to a YouTube vlog, Paris talking directly to the camera and charming us with her charisma. In the logic of the modernity, or post-modernity, she is the one looking to get recognized by performing internet gimmicks to go viral and become huge online. After all, that is how it is nowadays. Simultaneously, a cellphone became the recording crew from the past decades, videographers following the artists into studios, and their ramblings with other huge stars. It is something that MTV spread across, and now, the internet does it.

Still, the cinematic act of a videographer following an artist, which was fairly common in past decades, earns a novelty sign in the camera filming the violent acts of Paris to become someone. Ironically, she would need to murder an artist to get their spot in the festival. In this aspect, it is Murphy’s humor that guides the film’s heart, injecting blood into a vein of irony and postmodernism. Lacking much in the way of subtlety, the director is screaming about how someone kills for fame and fifteen minutes of clout. Yet these vampires are not Bram Stoker-esque; they are as quirky as Waititi’s in What We Do in the Shadows, arguably the lamest possible comparison to this film (vampires + mockumentary). They are Gen Z, hooked on drugs and overstimulation from the TikTok reels, eager for fame and the internet clout.

In the end, I Love Paris makes for an enjoyable experience, at least for the most part. It is a film that plays on the delusions of its main character and, arguably, her generation’s. While its middle section becomes a bit stagnant, the final moments that result in the karma of it all land and are satisfying. Thiboult is brilliant as a 21st Century personality, a mix of Slayyter and Charli XCX, with the French sauce. Still, Thiboult and director Nicky Murphy cook an inherently funny good time, and also one that works as a portrayal of today’s times, especially its pathetic elements.

still courtesy of Rareamazing

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Pedro Lima

Brazilian film writer. He is also a producer and executive producer for Zariah Filmes. Member of the International Film Society Critics Association (IFSCA), International Documentary Association (IDA), and Gotham and Media Film Institute.