Acid (2023 film). Acid (; released in the Philippines as Acid Rain) is a 2023 French-language fantasy drama film directed by Just Philippot from a screenplay by Philippot and Yacine Badday. The film is a co-production between France and Belgium. It is an expansion of Philippot's 2018 short film of the same name.

The film premiered at the 76th Cannes Film Festival on 21 May 2023. It was released in France on 20 September 2023.

Synopsis
During a heat wave, strange clouds start pouring down acid rain, wreaking devastation and panic throughout France. In a world teetering on the edge, a girl and her divorced parents must join forces to confront and try to escape this climate catastrophe.

Cast
 Guillaume Canet as Michal
 Laetitia Dosch as Elise
 Patience Munchenbach as Selma
 Marie Jung as Deborah
 Martin Verset as William

Production

Development
Acid is a feature-length expansion of Just Philippot's short film of the same name. which was released in 2018. Philippot developed Acid in parallel with his debut feature The Swarm (), both through the company Bonne Pioche Cinéma. He wrote the screenplay with Yacine Badday.

Acid was produced Yves Darondeau, Emmanuel Priou and Clément Renouvin for Bonne Pioche Cinéma and by Ardavan Safaee for Pathé Films. It was co-produced by France 3 Cinéma, Guillaume Canet's Caneo Films, Belgium's Umedia, and Logical Content Ventures.

Filming

Principal photography began on 7 March 2022, under the working title Eau-Forte. Between 24 March and 7 April 2022, filming took place in Pecqueuse, Essonne.

Filming also took place in Belgium. Filming took place in Visé between 11 and 26 April 2022, with the Pont de Lanaye closed to facilitate the production. Filming also took place in fort d'Emines, Namur Province, and in Braine-le-Comte, Hainaut Province, including in the Bois de la Houssière on 26 and 27 April 2022. Filming concluded in the middle of the night of 10 May 2022.

Music
The music for the film was composed by Robin Coudert.

Release
The film was selected to be screened out of competition in the Midnights Screenings section at the 76th Cannes Film Festival, where it had its world premiere on 21 May 2023.

The film was theatrically released in France on 20 September 2023 by Pathé. In the Philippines, the film was released by Pioneer Films as Acid Rain on 17 January 2024.

Reception

Critical response
On AlloCiné, the film received an average rating of 3.2 out of 5 stars, based on 36 reviews from French critics.

Reviewing the film following its Cannes premiere, Cécile Mury of Télérama praised "a disaster film that haunts with its contemporary realism, in which Guillaume Canet delivers an astonishing performance full of tension". Philippe Guedj of Le Point praised the director who "happily napalms the clichés of the Emmerich genre and maintains until the very end the mark of a film oozing anger". Première included Acid on its "Top 10" list of all films screened at Cannes in May 2023, and later, following its theatrical release, praised the feature: "A grand introspective spectacle that is constantly embodied in movement". L'Écran fantastique devoted its September cover to the film: "Keeping us constantly on our toes, Acid is a real success which, for once, honours our national cinema". Also, the editors of Mad Movies hailed a "gruelling race against time that skilfully combines its socio-climatic themes with its approach to horror", as well as a "mixture of social fantasy that is a clear improvement on The Swarm". In a review by Yal Sadat, Cahiers du cinéma praised the film's inventiveness as a cross between horror and family drama, "inventing a pessimistic, coldly rational (French, in short) counterpoint to the "green" blockbusters bent on the promise of a happy ending".

Among foreign critics, Tim Grierson of Screen International recognized the film's mélange of genres: "Philippot combines aspects of the disaster film and the domestic drama, approaching each genre with understatement to deliver a modest study of personal and societal upheaval – and refusing to offer tidy resolutions on either front." Martyn Conterio of The London Economic lamented the film's unsatisfying conclusion and a lack of budget for grand special effects, but praised the execution of its dread and suspense, as well as the "spiky" personality of Canet's character, which contribute to "excellent interpersonal drama and scenes of high tension".

Accolades

References

External links
 

2023 films
2023 drama films
2023 fantasy films
2020s Belgian films
2020s French films
2020s French-language films
Belgian drama films
Belgian fantasy films
Climate change films
Features based on short films
Films scored by Robin Coudert
Films set in France
Films shot in Belgium
Films shot in Essonne
France 3 Cinéma films
French fantasy drama films
French-language Belgian films
Pathé films