“Your uniform is your armour.” Something to this effect is told to the flight attendants taking a training course. Cassandre (Adèle Exarchopoulos) knows this, but has some difficulty participating in a smiling exercise. “Leave your emotions behind.” Zero Fucks Given (2021) is an observational workplace drama, which follows Cassandre on her rounds as an attendant for a fictional cheap airline called Wing. The film provides an insight into the grind, particularly attendants having to reach daily targets for sales. And this all seems to suit Cassandre’s aimlessness, content to work, party at night, or scroll through dating apps. We eventually learn that Cassanre is also processing grief of a lost family member. Her directionless eventually hits a wall with Wing’s corporate strategies. Attendants have to be graduated to being team leaders. “I don’t want any responsibilities,” Cassandre says.
While Zero Fucks Given is stronger in its first half, following Cassandre at work, I did find the second half where she returns home to Belgium and reconnects with her family to be engaging, particularly her interactions with her real estate agent father and sister. Director and writer duo, Emmanuel Marre and Julie Lecoustre, use a documentary approach often, following Exarchopoulos in uniform through real airports or on the streets across the European locations. A stronger film might have pursued the critique of capitalism and the airport work environment further, like paying off an earlier scene where Cassandre hears out striking airport workers but just wants to get to her plane. This is content to be an observational character study, which I was all for, particularly if it means just having the camera following Adèle Exarchopoulos drag her carry-on bag through space as ‘To The Unknown Man’ by Vangelis plays.
Streamed on Mubi, which it just left, but I’m sure will come back. Recommended.
VHS Tracking 