Directed by Elisabeth Vogler
Written by François Mark, Elisabeth Vogler, Noémie Schmidt, Joris Avodo
Starring Vladimir Seguin, Alice de Lencquesaing, Noémie Schmidt, Aurore Déon
Runtime: 1 hour, 30 minutes
Streaming through the Tribeca Festival starting June 13

by Gary Kramer, Staff Writer

Roaring 20’s, which is having its World Premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival, opens on the streets of Paris and wanders around them for the next 85 minutes. Directed by Elisabeth Vogler, this is a “single-take” film where the camera follows two dozen characters—mostly young, often seen in pairs—over the course of single day in the summer of 2020. Viewers get to eavesdrop on the lives of these friends and strangers in the city in the age of COVID.

The first encounter features Leon meeting Julie outside the Louvre. They start to talk, but he soon stops and hypnotizes her. As Julie leaves, the camera shifts to follow two women carrying a statue. They talk (and talk and talk) about the color black. While one woman recounts the history of color, the other discusses the color of history, expressing ideas about race and language. Their debate may seem smart or clever, or it may be tedious or contrived, or grating, but it ends quickly enough, and Roaring 20s picks up the pace with two male friends having a conversation where each man reveals something surprising. 

Alas, as their discussion piques one’s interest, the men are stopped by a couple who ask to hug them. The camera pivots and follows the huggers, a man and a woman, who are ex-lovers. They have an amusing discussion about sex and pornography until they are interrupted by a woman on the subway, and so on and so forth.

Vogler’s approach, which is reminiscent of Richard Linklater’s 1990 debut, Slacker, tends to capture snippets of each individual, and this can be engaging, especially when the characters are appealing. Her decisions about what is presented can feel arbitrary or deliberate, natural or forced, fascinating or it can wear thin. Some of the subjects are more interesting than others. When a young girl is running through the streets, there are multiple ways of reading the scene. Is she being chased? Is she late for an appointment? Is she just experiencing freedom on a summer’s day? When her situation is revealed, it raises some interesting questions. It is almost a shame when Vogler interrupts her story to follow a woman dressed like a bride who discovers an abandoned baby carriage. Her scene is not uninteresting, but when she later gets picked up by a man on a moped—and the camera follows them through the streets, around a truck, and beyond—Roaring 20s gets exciting. But then Vogler lets them ride away to focus on a man playing online chess, which feels like a letdown.

Some of the vignettes fail to connect, such as one where a comedian, who is greeted by a fan, is telling his manager that he wants to work in dance now. Because viewers are dropped into the middle of their conversation, this decision has low stakes. Likewise, the dynamic between the next set of young men who talk and walk feels vague and uninvolving. Better is a later episode where the camera stops at a park bench and sits with a young woman giving a tarot card reading. As she talks directly to the camera, it eventually becomes clear that she is speaking to another woman, and as they leave the bench, there is some tension because the relationship between the young women is ambiguous. Yet this scene ends on a satisfying note. 

Roaring 20s ends with all of the characters coming together for a charming sequence where one character sings like a pied piper and the others follow behind, as if spellbound. Vogler’s uneven film can be mesmerizing at times, and the single-take format never feels gimmicky; it is light and airy. But even if there are moments that are poignant, or sincere, fanciful or elusive, the film oddly does not provide enough food for thought. Roaring 20s offers morsels rather than a full meal.

See all of our Tribeca 2021 coverage here.