The JoyMan
2026 · 2m · France
Directed by Jeremy Guillere
Genres: coming-of-age, drama
Tones: contemplative, tender
Joey, trapped in a monotonous screen-obsessed life, discovers that beauty hides in the simplest moments.
Picked by Zoe
The scouts
A coming-of-age film about finding beauty in simplicity is exactly the kind of well-intentioned premise that makes me wince—and yet Guillere's refusal to sentimentalize the screen addiction angle, his willingness to let Joey's discovery breathe without explanation, actually makes this land where it shouldn't.
The formal restraint here—two minutes to articulate a philosophical turn, the contemplative pacing that trusts the viewer—positions this within a lineage of essay-films and modernist shorts that value silence as much as revelation.
What makes this work is almost invisible: the sound design decision to strip the screen noise entirely in the final moments, letting natural ambient tone replace the digital drone, lifts what could have been a greeting-card premise into something that actually *feels* like waking up.