Suspended Time (2024) review

Filmmaker Paul (Vincent Macaigne) and his girlfriend Morgane (Nine d'Urso) spend the COVID-19 quarantine with Paul's brother Étienne (Micha Lescot) and his partner Carole (Nora Hamzawi) in their rustic childhood home - Paul and Étienne quibble over the loudness of the television, sanitary procedures and the proper way to clean out a burned pot while the ladies mostly smoke and keep their distance.  Since Paul is a stand-in for Assayas and Étienne represents his real-life brother Michka this is coming from a personal place - he even reminisces about his younger years and how the neighborhood has changed - although one could argue the topic is a little too recent to be fully engaging (it may age better as time passes) because almost everyone remembers what it was like to be virtually trapped indoors, and for whatever reason he's under the impression everything his characters say and do is inherently compelling when, in fact, it's all quite routine.  It's suggested that the experience somehow lead the two couples to form a "stronger bond" with each other, but for Paul and Morgane that just amounts to playing tennis and going for walks.  During lockdown, I did a lot of catching up on reading, regularly sprayed doorhandles with Lysol and vacuumed the carpets ... and I strongly doubt anyone would enjoy watching a reenactment of that.