Chatty, frothy, and fierce, director Rachel Wolther’s self-aware satire pays dutiful homage to the golden age of the end-of-the-century New York indie and is woven throughout with an anxious undercurrent of present-day status anxiety. Comedians Aristotle Athari and Catherine Cohen bring a worn-in familiarity to their performances as uptight millennial couple Doug and Valerie, whose petty grievances send them packing for the suburbs and, in due time, back to the Big Apple with a revenge plot in tow.
Told in flashback while attending a richer, happier couple’s housewarming, Doug and Valerie unspool a shaggy dog story that leads straight to a “river in Egypt,” as it were. To hear them tell it, their rent-stabilized brownstone was a little slice of paradise—no argument there—until their stoner downstairs neighbor added a new girlfriend to the picture. Frustrated by the “weirder” couple’s all-night fighting, fucking, and karaoke sessions, our heroes decamp for the Westchester ‘burbs, bringing with them an armload of emotional baggage and bitter regret. Ensconced in the hinterlands, Doug and Valerie’s relationship turns into a feedback loop of reassurance and frustration. Isolated from their city-dwelling friends and convinced of their own innocence, the duo concoct an increasingly elaborate prank upon the very neighbors who “forced” them out of the city.
Perfectly cast as the slinky and mysterious ingénue, PornHub icon Chloe Cherry floats above this type-A ensemble with irresistible vacuity. Her decidedly minimalist performance provides the perfect foil for Doug and Valerie’s machinations. Unbothered and unaware, she slips like a cipher from scene to scene, leaving one to wonder who, exactly, has set the trap for whom. Loping through the paces of an entirely fake audition and subsequent play rehearsal, Cherry’s nonchalance throws further gasoline on the fire of Doug and Valerie’s roiling resentment. Current and former New Yorkers will find much to scoff at among the spectrum of city coupledom on display: from upwardly mobile weekend warrior triathletes to pot-smoking sleazeoids and everything in between. If there is one lesson to be gleaned from The French Italian, it’s a smart and snarky reminder that a good New Yorker always minds their own damn business.
The French Italian runs October 3-9 at The Quad. Director Rachel Wolther will be in attendance for a series of Q&As throughout the week.
