Parents' Guide to Dirty Cops (L'amour est une fête)

This French dramedy has plenty of style but little substance. Comparisons have been made to 1997's Boogie Nights. But while the porn, drugs, and violence in that movie were held together by a plot, Dirty Cops' narrative plays second fiddle. Set in the 1980s, the movie captures the seediness of Paris' red light district, while at the same time glamorizing it -- opting for comedic set pieces rather than gritty realism. Canet and Lellouche's performances as the undercover cops match those you'd expect from two of French cinema's finest actors. But their descent into the sex-and-drugs lifestyle fails to draw you in, meaning you end up not caring much about their plight.

For a movie that centers around the porn industry, it does well -- for the most part -- in not exploiting the female characters, although there is some leering. It suggests that the women are just as enthusiastic to be a part of this world as the men. Characters sleep with one another with little consequence, capturing the supposed free-spiritedness of the decade. But ultimately that's what the movie feels like: a love letter to a time long gone, whose reality was no doubt far darker than how it's portrayed here.