May 18, 2026 4:19pm PT

‘Full Phil’ Review: With Woody Harrelson and Kristen Stewart Locked in a Father-Daughter Hatefest, Will Quentin Dupieux’s Latest Bizarro-World Lark Be His Crossover Movie?

The two actors play family antagonists in a Parisian hotel. But the director of "Deerskin" is trying, in a broad way, for Buñuelian cinema of the absurd.

Owen Gleiberman

Plus Icon

Owen Gleiberman

Chief Film Critic

@OwenGleiberman

Latest

‘Full Phil’ Review: With Woody Harrelson and Kristen Stewart Locked in a Father-Daughter Hatefest, Will Quentin Dupieux’s Latest Bizarro-World Lark Be His Crossover Movie?

31 minutes ago

‘Sheep in the Box’ Review: Kore-eda’s Sweet but Limp Sci-Fi Fable About a 7-Year-Old AI Humanoid

1 day ago

‘Paper Tiger’ Review: Miles Teller and Adam Driver Get Ensnared by the Russian Mob in a James Gray Film With More Atmosphere Than Plausibility

2 days ago

See All

Courtesy of Cannes Film Festival

The French filmmaker Quentin Dupieux, director of the midnight cult movie “Rubber” (about a homicidal car tire) and the ticklishly perverse “Deerskin” (in which Jean Dujardin played a lonely loon obsessed with a vintage fringed suede jacket), is a dada prankster whose work inspires a different sense of anticipation from that of almost any other filmmaker. When you go into a Quentin Dupieux film, it’s with the thought, “WTF is he going to pull this time?” His movies are goofs, larks, stunts, knowingly arch bizarro-world riffs And I was especially curious about “Full Phil,” because it combines Dupieux’s French surrealist impishness with the American star power of Kristen Stewart and Woody Harrelson. Would this be Dupieux’s crossover movie? If so, WTF would he pull this time?

'Full Phil' Review: With Woody Harrelson and Kristen Stewart Locked in a Father-Daughter Hatefest, Will Quentin Dupieux's Latest Bizarro-World Lark Be His Crossover Movie?