Paris, 13th District: it is a bit ironic that Jacques Audiard’s film, which is about connections made and missed, feels a bit disjointed. It tells two or three stories about the three people in the poster, or at least from their point of view. They touch each other lives at intervals, and they are all individually interesting, as the characters are all engaging. However, the structure does it a disservice and the total is less than the sum of its parts; the film even feels longer than it actually is (even if editor Juliette Welfling is very playful with how some scenes are built). In any case, this is not due to the performers: the trio is attractive, has interesting characters to play, and plays them well: Lucie Zhang as the love-stricken but carefree young woman, Noémie Merlant as the insecure woman on a path of self-discovery, and Makita Samba as the commitment-averse professor that finds himself between them. Cinematographer Paul Guilhaume captures it all (well, almost all) in beautiful black-and-white, which in no way diminishes how sensuous the film is.