A wanna be influencer and musician is bitten by a vampire in the mixed bag found footage I Love Paris, now playing as part of the Fantasia Film Festival.
I Love Paris, directed by Nicky Murphy and written by Murphy with star Aminata Thiboult, is a different sort of vampire tale. After a Parisian (her real name is Ami, but she changed it to Paris to try to cash in on the merchandise, somehow. Yes, really) wanna influencer and musician is turned into a vampire, she tries to figure out how her creature of the night powers can translate to stardom. An interesting idea for sure, a different version of Anne Rice’s Lestat as a rock star concept (since that’s fresh in everyone’s mind), but one marred by a bleh (bleh bleh) execution, plotting story, and a chore of a lead.
The biggest thing that took me out of the film continually is how much I disliked Paris, despite the title telling me to do otherwise. I do get that her dislikability is part of the point in her character and how she acts, but it’s grating after a while. And the while for I Love Paris is two full hours. That’s a lot of time to spend with someone who boils my blood. Paris is an infuriating person who will never take a no. Who insists she’ll get what she wants no matter how implausible it is. No matter how much people tell her she can’t: not in the “you’ll never be famous” (though plenty of people tell her that her music is bad and it is) but “I’m going to do a TikTok at this location because I want to, even if the person there is telling me to go away.” She’s the type of person who would fall into the Grand Canyon, stepping over bannisters and signs because she wanted that one shot. Well, she gets that TikTok in an abandoned tunnel, gets cut, and gets a bite from Leonor Oberson’s Lutece. Now, with vampire powers of speed, charm, invulnerability, and the lack of needing to eat or pay bills, she can finally get the fame she desperately wants, with Lutece there to guide her.
Thus, I Love Paris is the story of a pushy musician working up the music ladder to try to get into a festival in her own way, despite everything against her: everyone she knows, her personality, and her awful music. She just also happens to be a vampire. I’ve said before there’s nothing wrong with unlikable protagonists. That’s compelling; that grey area is highly interesting (just see Falling Down’s 4K a few weeks ago). But Paris is grating. And we’re stuck with her for two hours as she only rarely arcs a character, usually only when it now inconveniences her. There’s a half-assed humbling toward the end, but that’s it; she’s stagnant. However, Aminata Thiboult is fantastic in her performance (though I dislike the choices of making the character how she is). It could be interesting to have these two plotlines converge, but not much is done with it, sadly.
I Love Paris is shot in found footage as a mockumentary, for better and for worse. For better, Murphy gets close to teh subjects, allowing their inner thoughts with confessionales, looking in, and moving through their lives. I liked getting the ground-eye view of the city and its people. Often, much feels like Thiboult is let out with people that happen to be around, and that feels natural. I Love Paris is at its best free-flowing. The whole was partially unscripted, working from the flow and crafting it into the lines that made it cut. Free and loose, good; when forwarding the plot and whatever can of character is when it stops. Repetitious to a fault; one feels a 90-minute version might be much stronger, cutting down scenes that are basically the same as ones we’ve seen a few times already. The faults of the mockumentary keep it close to Paris, as noted, leaving out what could be interesting about the nightlife of the city. Vampire society we see a brief bit about. Camera guy, keep following with Paris, but please leave me here. This is a far more interesting set of characters and set-up. But then again, What We Do in the Shadows worked this so well over the show and movie; it’s fine to not repeat. Maybe my want for more of those folks is that IP leaching into my brain watching this (it did come up in my notes “WWDITS without the charm”). Coming back around to the positive, the look given by the lo-fi filming has an underground grit, an underlit nastiness I enjoyed. Down and gritty, the lived-in nature of this sort of photography gives the film something more than if it was standard, feeling off the cuff and raw, dark and dirty.
I Love Paris didn’t work for me, mainly in my gripes about the titular character. While I get that’s the point, it leaned too hard and took me out. Others might not check out, getting more into the comedic mockumentary style of someone walling in their own mediocrity. The gritty cinema-verete look lends a special style, and the idea of the plotting is solid, even if the execution isn’t so strong. Check I Love Paris out if it interests you, and I honestly hope it strikes you more than me.
I Love Paris is presented as part of the Fantasia Film Festival, 30th edition, running July 16th through August 2nd, 2026.