Le grand bain

Formulaic but charming.

I'll always have a soft spot for stories about society's chronic losers, and I'll always have a soft spot for niche hobby stories. Wish this could have been a bit more than the sum of its parts, but I'll take dramatically lit fat guys dancing to 80s music.

A feel-good comedy that actually makes you feel good - a rarity these days with most such films simply cheap humour - which is well written, directed and acted. It works because there is something of substance below the surface (pun intended) of the frequent moments of comedy.

I am not used to watching films that combine drama with comedy, but I liked this one, although I was not very surprised. Is really charming.

Starts off tremendously with a Monty Python-esque animated sequence that covers a large aspect of humanity, before spending an equal amount of time on each of these blokes going through the various shittiness of middle age and gaining confidence and respect from this odd hobby. It's a cliched story, and everything ends a little too well, but it's an empathetic tale that's hard not to love, plus features an excellent performance from Leïla Bekhti. If you're into dad bods, here's a movie for you.

Okay French dramedy about middle-aged men forming a male synchronized swimming team that's helped a lot by its very solid cast.