Has the English social comedy, which like Full Monty flourished across the Channel, found its French equivalent? With Cash, by Jérémie Rozan, a three-color Netflix production mixing wacky farce and heist film against a backdrop of class struggle, the spirit is there in any case. More frank – we are in the suburban suburbs on the Chartres side – and more “anar” since it is a question for the workers of a perfume factory to take their revenge on big capital and to operate a forced redistribution of wealth. Robin Hoods of modern times looking like yellow vests fighting in their own way against social inequalities and the corruption of the elites.
Daniel Sauveur, son of a modest family, had nevertheless sworn as a child never to work for the Breuils, a family that has reigned over the local economy for several generations and owns a luxury perfume factory, leader of the “Cosmetic Valley”. But the small delivery company set up with his childhood friend soon finds himself absorbed by the group, his main client.
A production in tune with the times
Assigned to the chain, Daniel broods over his resentment and makes ends meet by diverting a few bottles of perfume every day. Until the HRD, annoyed at not having been appointed to the management position, joins the dance and transforms the small scam into a large-scale scam. All under the interested gaze of a shark selling perfumes on the Internet who dreams of buying the company at a lower cost.
A sort of Ocean’s Eleven revisited with Kervern and Delépine sauce (Mammuth, Erase History), this Netflix production knows how to seize the spirit of the times perfectly. Effectively realized parody of the genre film, it adds this pinch of gently transgressive social revenge that will delight the greatest number. It is especially due to the charismatic presence of Raphaël Quenard who, with his banter and his very particular phrasing, has in a few films imposed his style on French cinema.