Damien Nadea-Daneau (Guillaume Lambert) is a filmmaker who is working on his first feature with Denis Lavant. Yet he squanders that opportunity. He puts the both of them in a formless film that will enjoy its stay in development hell. While that is ongoing, he enters a dead end script job.

Ladies and gentlemen, ennui! What follows is Damien having a few drinks with bougie, insufferable characters. The amount of people in the audience who are in the same rut as Damien is irrelevant. Downer movies like this have a tendency to navel gaze and therefore, be a hard sell.

Lambert is also on writing and directing duties here. He is aiming to make a movie about my generation which hits as many right notes as wrong, reductive ones. There is some overt symbolism here. For instance, the characters’ vintage outfits and eating habits suggesting characters clinging to their past.

However, when it’s right it’s right. Les Scènes Fortuites deals heavily with the relate-able feeling of rejection. These are characters who hurt each other’s creative and personal lives and are unaware that they’re doing it. They also compare themselves to each other, Lambert filling his script with subtle one-upsmanship.

One of the people he compares himself to is Damien’s sister Vicky (Valerie Cadieux), both of whom are complete opposites.  Depicting their relationship, the film starts out with a frenetic pace, exposing, as an example, how they speak about others. The movie also packs much information in its running time.

The film thankfully slows down as Damien and Vicky face their myriad issues. They find the silver lining in the sadness that they see in themselves and in other people. And the movie didn’t even need social media for that. Lambert and Cadieux’s comc rapport also complements their characters’ growth.