Holy Cow (2025)

Louise Courvoisier's debut full length feature is a rich, enchanting and frankly glorious piece of film making. The plot may seem rather slight and perhaps bizarre- it revolves around a young delinquent who dreams of winning the annual Comte cheese-making competition in rural France- and yet Holy Cow draws you in, and keeps you utterly hooked in its beautiful setting with characters that you simply can't help but root for.

Teenage deadbeat Totone (a truly astonishing performance from Clement Faveau- who is actually a poultry farmer in real life) spends his days drinking, fighting, messing around with his friends, and chasing girls. When his alcoholic widowed father dies, his life looks pretty bleak- he's got to look after his younger sister whilst being responsible for a failing farm, with no real idea of how to do either.

Totone finds purpose in attempting to make cheese with the somewhat fanciful idea of winning the annual Comte cheese-making competition (for its generous cash prize); but to do so he begins to steal milk from a young farmer Marie-Lise, a girl he becomes romantically involved with.

The whole film feels lived-in, specifically in this rural area which frequently feels like a world unto itself, drawing you into its surrounding and local mindset- before you know it you feel like part of the furniture- or perhaps that should be farm equipment.

Despite the fact that the narrative essentially surround the making of cheese, this isn't what Holy Cow is about. It deals with youth, loss, friendship and finding yourself; life can be unforgiving and you've got to adapt. It's one of the film's finest moments when Marie-Lise tells Totone "Stop sniveling and pull your finger out"; she's not being harsh, but simply stating a fact.

Holy Cow is never saccharin or sentimental in the way you might expect from something that has been coined a 'feel good film'. It makes the experience much more engrossing that you're behind Totone from the opening minutes, but Courvoisier's film traverses some difficult subject matter- it's far from your average heartwarming piece.

The film's final scene is so joyfully perfect that you genuinely don't expect to end when it does, you're simply so invested by this point. In fact, just before the ending, I realised I would happily watch these characters all day. When the final shot cuts to black, it dawned on me that it might well be the best ending to a film I'd seen this year; and without doubt one of my favourite films of 2025 so far. It's a joy from start to finish. 8.3/10