LOL (Laughing Out Loud)


LOL is a 2008 French comedy film directed by Lisa Azuelos and starring Sophie Marceau, Christa Theret, and Alexandre Astier. Written by Azuelos and Delgado Nans, the film is about a teenage girl whose life is split between her studies in a Parisian high school, her secret diary, her parents, her friends, and her boyfriends. Christa Theret received a César Award nomination for Most Promising Actress in 2010. The movie is heavily inspired by La Boum, which starred Marceau as the teenage character.

Plot

Lola is a teenage girl living with her mother Anne, who is divorced from Lola's father, Alain. Nicknamed 'LOL' by her friends, Lola has been taking her first steps into teenage romance, dating a boy from her class named Arthur. Following the summer break, Arthur tells her that he cheated on her over the summer and was dating one of her friends. Lola decides to break things off with him, and starts seeing his close friend, Maël. Lola's friends seem to enjoy complicating matters even more. But life at home has also become impossible with her mother, Anne. Lola attempts to play her mother and her father Alain off against each other for her own advantage, but what she doesn't know is that Anne and Alain have begun dating again on the sly. After a class trip to England, her relationship with her mother comes crashing down.

Cast

A cultural critic writing for The Independent noted that the film portrayed British culture in the way it is stereotypically imagined by many French, showing a small town outside London where it "never stops raining. The streets are populated by middle-aged women in dowdy floral dresses carrying garish umbrellas. For dinner, the French teenagers are served white bread, marmalade and pasta – on the same plate." In France the film was well received as depicting a generation of youngsters, much as other films in the 1980s and 1990s had.

Remake

An American remake released on 4 May 2012 starring Miley Cyrus, Demi Moore, Ashley Greene, Adam Sevani, and Douglas Booth was a critical and commercial failure.