The Thousands

France’s answer to American Pie – Tarte Française, perhaps? – is adorable, excruciating fun, with a much more edgy indie feel than its trans-Atlantic counterpart. Director Riad Sattouf is a comic-book illustrator whose best-known work is The Secret Life of Youth, and his debut film’s original French title was Beautiful Kids. Like the film’s year-nine protagonists, Sattouf spent his teenage years in Rennes, Brittany, and there’s an affectionate yet unsentimental authenticity in the way he presents the small agonies of adolescence.

Hormone-fuelled Hervé (Vincent Lacoste) is constantly humiliated by his mum (the hilarious Noémie Levovsky), and since he and his mullet-rocking sidekick Camel (Anthony Sonigo) are the school dropkicks, getting a real girl seems unlikely. But when Aurore (Alice Tremolieres) takes a shine to Hervé, he’ll have to choose between his nerdy friends and the promise of actual sex.

There are plentiful semen jokes, poo jokes and MILF jokes (Aurore’s mum is played by ’80s babe Irène Jacob), but there are also sweet, contemplative moments. With the wisdom of my advanced old age, I can watch The French Kissers knowing that these kids are gonna turn out fine.