The French Italian (2025) Movie Review: An NYC-set comedy that stays limited to its quirky premise

Rachel Wolther’s The French Italian (2025) follows an NYC-based couple who get so tired of their noisy neighbors that they change their whole lives while trying to find peace. That is a relatable premise for anyone who has lived in that city’s tiny and expensive apartments, where you cannot escape similar nuisances. There is always something happening around you that would invite your attention for one reason or another. Wolter’s film taps into that notion. Its premise reminded me of a similar short I caught at the Sundance a few years ago. It also followed a New York couple who face nuisance from their next-door neighbor.

The short film showed its central couple living in a cramped NYC apartment, leading a fairly monotonous life. So, the noises from their neighbour stopped annoying them after a point. Instead, they became so invested in that neighbor’s life that it provided a much-needed backdrop to break the monotony of their own lives. At a certain point, they stopped looking for their usual sources of entertainment. Instead, they relied on details from their neighbor’s soapy romance as a source of pleasure and comfort. The short conveyed that thought within its roughly ten-minute duration.

‘The French Italian’ turns a similar premise into a one-and-a-half-hour comedic feature that leans into idiosyncratic humor than the absurdist naturalism of this short. So, even if the film originates from a similar truth about surviving in that city, it is more elevated in its approach. Some of its characters are out-and-out caricatures that feel like they belong in an SNL sketch. It’s not a flaw in Wolther’s film, but a characteristic that shapes its overall tone. It invites you into its whimsical, visually colorful world that its characters inhabit.

Speaking about the script, Valerie (Catherine Cohen) and Doug (Aristotle Athari) are the aggrieved, central couple who go through a life-altering transformation all because of their neighbors (Chloe Cherry & Jon Rudnitsky), who are either singing or arguing in their apartment almost every waking minute. So, they become the bane of Val and Doug’s peaceful existence. The neighbors are also younger than these two 30-somethings. So, they have that zeal for adventure that these two don’t seem to have. Instead, Val and Doug seem like the kind of couple who have been together for so long that they are also comfortable in sharing long stretches of silence.

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Wolther’s script utilizes this contrast to build its drama about a couple trying to find the spark they may have had when they were younger. Their predicament gets funnier because their lives are far from miserable. They have jobs that seem enough for their daily needs, and they seem content in each other’s company. Yet, in the presence of someone who lives by the beat, they might be feeling outdated. The script doesn’t directly address these elements, but there is an underlying layer of Val and Doug trying to prove themselves. It happens only after something or someone drives them to feel like they have something left to prove to the world. It also compels them to fill the gaps in a story they know very little about.

Wolther uses these characters to explore the sheer absurdity of places like New York, where your life can drastically change even through something seemingly trivial. It can lead people to fame or success through sheer stroke of luck. They don’t even need to be talented or suitable for the job; they can simply find themselves in situations that push them to similar success. In Val and Doug’s cases, that success is a bit more personal. It offers them a taste of the thrill they seem to have forgotten over the years of living together.

Cohen and Athari have a charming, dramatic chemistry that suits Val and Doug’s relationship. They make these two feel like a picture-perfect couple, as intended in Wolther’s script. Besides that, they have a solid comedic rapport to make the gags work for the most part. Their characters represent slightly more than their quirks, but that is not the case with the rest of the characters, who remain catalysts in their story. It leaves them simply as caricatures in Val and Doug’s lives, with no distinguishable trait beyond what the two learn about them.

Instead, fleshing out their personalities besides revealing more about Val and Doug as people could have made ‘The French Italian’ more than the sum of its quirks. There is definitely fun to be had in watching its oddball characters unabashedly being themselves or finding themselves along the way, only to realize that they were perhaps better off before they entered the quest. While that is admirable, the film does lose out on an opportunity to offer a deeper dive into human nature and the absurdities of NYC life since it doesn’t expand beyond its inherent quirks nearly enough.

‘The French Italian’ is opening in theaters in NYC on October 3rd, and in LA on October 10th.

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The French Italian (2025) Movie Links: IMDb, Rotten Tomatoes, Letterboxd
The French Italian (2025) Movie Cast: Catherine Cohen, Aristotle Athari, Ruby McCollister, Jon Rudnitsky, Ikechukwu Ufomadu, Chloe Cherry
The French Italian (2025) Movie Runtime: 1h 32m, Genre: Comedy/Drama