Delete History (2020)

Delete History is special because it turns our daily, low-grade digital misery into a battle cry—sharp, bitterly funny, and weirdly cathartic. Kervern and Delépine take three ordinary neighbors, worn down by algorithms, ratings, and online cruelty, and let their frustrations bloom into absurd comedy that still feels uncomfortably recognizable. The vibe is deadpan and slightly anarchic, the kind of satire that makes you laugh and then check your phone with suspicion. If you prefer broad, cuddly crowd-pleasers this may feel too prickly and odd, but if you’ve ever wanted to yell at a platform’s “customer support,” this one lands like a well-aimed punchline.

Delete History is trying to be a scrappy, anti–tech giant comedy about ordinary people getting chewed up by social media, algorithms, and the gig economy, and there’s a clear intention to channel that anger into farce. The problem is it often pushes the characters so deep into caricature that the satire can feel more like ridicule than recognition, which makes it harder to care when the story asks for emotional buy-in. The plot also stays fairly surface-level, hopping from one “digital nightmare” scenario to the next without building a truly convincing arc for why these people would meaningfully change. If you enjoy deadpan, absurdist French comedy and don’t mind broad strokes in exchange for a few sharp jabs at modern life, you’ll get some laughs—but if you want relatable characters and a cathartic, believable payoff, this may leave you cold.