The Misadventures of Hedi and Cokeman is a French Harold & Kumar-like film that is unbearably loud and annoying.
The unfunny comedy follows unlikeable characters Hedi (Hedi Bouchenafa) and Cokeman (Nassim Lyes), two low-life drug dealers with a friendship as dysfunctional as their own characters, who spend most of their time scamming snobby city kids into buying faux drugs. When Hedi’s gold-digging sister marries a wealth bakery mogul, who also deals in drugs (but more high-end), she forces her newlywed husband to take on her brother and his sidekick as his new weed dealers. With this, they enter into an unfortunate series of misadventures that are drug-induced, ridiculously stupid and annoying all while delivering humourless dialogue that is always backed by boisterous laughter delivered by the characters themselves after almost every “joke”. It’s every sane person’s nightmare.
First time director Julien Hollande misses almost every mark of this over-the-top comedy whether it be with the unnecessary split screens, pointless breaking of the fourth wall or the dizzy, all-over-the-show antics of the plot. In a world where drug comedies such as Pineapple Express and Harold & Kumar exist, ‘The Misadventures of Hedi and Cokeman‘ bring nothing remotely memorable to the category. It’s a mesh of beats and plot points we’ve seen been done before, and executed much better.
Visually, the final war scene is directed and edited in an Edgar Wright-inspired manner which is the only real fun and entertaining bit. But like most of the directing and editing of the film, it is largely reliant on loud background music, making it one coked-up mess.
But the mess doesn’t end there. Even after the bad guy is taken care of, a new set of bad guys are introduced with a plot twist that just doesn’t make sense. It’s obvious the writers (Julien Hollande & Nassim Lyes) just wanted to add conflict to an already finished story. And then it ends. Not on a cliff-hanger but on a not-even-inclined speed bump.
This shallow buddy love film lacks structure, likeable characters, good humour and a mute button which makes it all the easier to avoid when scrolling through Netflix on a dry, lonely evening.
‘The Misadventures of Hedi and Cokeman’ is available to watch on Netflix.
Netflix Review – ‘The Misadventures of Hedi and Cokeman’
Reviewed online, via Netflix, February 14 2021, Rating: MA15+. Running Time: 99 min.
PRODUCTION: A Netflix release. Producer: Hugo Sélignac.
CREW: Director: Julien Hollande. Screenplay: Julien Hollande, Nassim Lyes. Cinematography: Son Doan. Editing: Lionel Devuyst.
CAST: Hedi Bouchenafa, Nassim Lyes.