''Mama Weed'' () is a 2020 French

crime comedy Crime fiction, detective story, murder mystery, crime novel, mystery novel, and police novel are terms used to describe narratives or fiction that centre on criminal acts and especially on the investigation, either by an amateur or a professiona ...

film directed by

Jean-Paul Salomé Jean-Paul Salomé (; born 14 September 1960) is a French director and screenwriter. Filmography References External links * {{DEFAULTSORT:Salome, Jean-Paul 1960 births Living people Film directors from Paris French male screenw ...

from a screenplay he co-wrote with Hannelore Cayre, and in collaboration with his son Antoine Salomé. The film is based on Cayre's 2017 novel ''The Godmother''. It stars

Isabelle Huppert Isabelle Anne Madeleine Huppert (; born 16 March 1953) is a French actress. Known for her portrayals of cold, austere women devoid of morality, she is considered one of the greatest actresses of her generation. With 16 nominations and two win ...

. It had its world premiere at the

L'Alpe d'Huez Film Festival L'Alpe d'Huez Film Festival, established in 1997, is a film festival dedicated to comedy cinema. It takes place every year in Alpe d'Huez L'Alpe d'Huez () is a ski resort in Southeastern France at . It is a mountain pasture in the central Fre ...

on 16 January 2020. It was released in France on 9 September 2020.

Synopsis

Patience Portefeux is an Arabic–French translator for a French police precinct's narcotics unit. When she discover she knows the mother of one of the drug dealers, Patience decides to use her insider knowledge to protect her friend and gets herself deeper involved in the world of drug dealing.

Cast

Release

''Mama Weed'' had its world premiere at the

on 16 January 2020. The film was originally scheduled to be released theatrically on 25 March 2020 but was postponed due to the French government's decision to close cinemas in response to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. It was finally released in France by

Le Pacte Le Pacte is a French motion picture company headquartered in Paris. It specializes in film distribution, co-productions and international sales. It was founded by Jean Labadie in November 2007, shortly after he was forced out of his previous co ...

on 9 September 2020.

Music Box Films Music Box Films is a distributor of foreign and independent film in theatrical, DVD/Blu-ray, and video-on-demand markets in the United States. Based in Chicago, Music Box Films is independently owned and operated by the Southport Music Box Corpo ...

gave the film a limited theatrical release in the United States beginning on 16 July 2021.

Reception

Critical response

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

, the film holds an approval rating of 79% based on 39 reviews, with an average rating of 6.8/10. The website's consensus reads, "''Mama Weed'' fails to fully engage with its themes -- but that's a relatively small quibble with Isabelle Huppert in the central role." According to

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

, which assigned a weighted average score of 58 out of 100 based on 9 critics, the film received "generally favorable reviews". ''Mama Weed'' received an average rating of 3.0 out of 5 stars on the French website

AlloCiné AlloCiné is an entertainment website founded by Jean-David Blanc in 1988, then joined by Patrick Holzman. It has belonged to the company since 2013 Webedia. which specializes in providing information on French cinema, mostly centering on nove ...

, based on 33 reviews. Nathalie Simon of ''

Le Figaro () is a French daily morning newspaper founded in 1826. It was named after Figaro, a character in several plays by polymath Pierre Beaumarchais, Beaumarchais (1732–1799): ''Le Barbier de Séville'', ''The Guilty Mother, La Mère coupable'', ...

'' wrote, "Jean-Paul Salomé's comedy about drug trafficking skillfully mixes the ''policier'' genre and humour". Jordan Mintzer of ''

The Hollywood Reporter ''The Hollywood Reporter'' (''THR'') is an American digital and print magazine which focuses on the Cinema of the United States, Hollywood film industry, film, television, and entertainment industries. It was founded in 1930 as a daily trade pap ...

'' called it "cleverly conceived and amusingly performed, if never quite as funny as it could be".

Accolades

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Mama Weed 2020 films 2020 crime comedy films 2020s French films 2020s French-language films Films about the illegal drug trade Films directed by Jean-Paul Salomé French crime comedy films French films based on novels Films based on French novels Films scored by Bruno Coulais French films about cannabis Films postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic Works about cannabis trafficking Le Pacte films