Les Crevettes Pailletées (French) [The Shiny Shrimps]

This light hearted fun filled film can easily be termed as a silly gay comedy. A movie about underdogs is something that we all love. Add to it some "fabulousness" and the time just goes by real quick, when both the actors and the audience are just having some fun. Yes, it is full of crude cliches and stereotypes but aren't we all used to it by now, especially if its comedy genre.

Matthias is an olympic swimmer almost at the end of career, so when a TV commentator pushes him, he blurts our a gay slur. Realizing his mistake he goes back to governing bodies so that he can get one last chance at swimming. His punishment is decided by making him coach of a gay water polo team called the  Shiny Shrimps, touted as “the worst gay sports team”. As you would expect, the team is a bunch of misfits thrown in together who are there just for a good time and lot of sex They are not interested in winning. Restaurant owner and chef Jean created this team and trained but has some sickness now. we have his ex lover, married guy with kids, older guy Joel who always undermines the current generation, 2-3 other guys who are just careless and free and newbie Vincent who just joined the team. We also have transgendered Fred in the mix. Matthias hopes that he will show no interest and team will automatically disqualify but soon he realizes that this may be his only chance to not only redeem himself and also use this opportunity to mend differences with his young daughter. How Matthias come around from being a homophobe to doing everything possible as a coach to make this team a success forms the rest of the story. An impending tragedy at the end even manages to bring a tear to the viewer's eyes before things end on a literal high note.

The big win of this film in my opinion is the fact the film never takes itself too seriously but at the same time does try to bring to foray some issues like older gays, transgendered, homophobia etc lightly. And everything is kept very comical. You may think the acting is loud but I think that the acting is pitched to the relative loudness of the respective characters, which really works in the films favors. These guys get one chance to be themselves and thats why they wanna have fun. No one till Matthias showed them a possibility that they have the potential to do greater things if they out their heart and mind to it. Most of the laughs are stereotyped but fun, especially the explanation of why, exactly, they are called Shiny Shrimps is great. There is an ode to queer classics as well, notably their trip on a rented bus from Paris to Croatia, echoing the fabulous The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. Any movie lover would know that for sure. It was nice to see Matthias transformation. It doesn't seem forced. The scene where Jean actually tells Matthias a little background of each of the players is when you feel the change happening. Till now the team members were bunch of jokers for the coach but now he had something to prove himself. It's difficult to single out any actor in this film. It's the entire ensemble that make it work. The negatives of the film will be the stereotypes showing all gay men want to do is get naked, drink and have sex. As much of that may largely be true, but no one wants to be shown the mirror. lol

Forget your worries and just watch this for a good fun ride because good vibes don’t come for free. Joy is something we have to fight for. We are all in lockdown and deserve something that brings a smile to our face. A fun filled silly gay comedy. (7/10)