Nouvelle Vague Review: Linklater Channels Godard's Breathless Birth
★★★★½ 4.5/5
The year's essential French export — Metacritic midyear world cinema and Cannes pedigree in one package.
Is Nouvelle Vague good?
For anyone who cares how movies get made, it is one of 2026’s most acclaimed non-English theatricals — 90% critics, Metascore 84, Letterboxd 3.8. Nouvelle Vague is Richard Linklater doing what Richard Linklater does best: hang out with obsessive young people long enough that their arrogance becomes charm. Guillaume Marbeck’s Jean-Luc Godard is not a hagiography; it is a portrait of a man who would rather break cinema than be polite.
What is the film about?
Paris, 1959: stolen locations, jazz on portable speakers, and the reckless shoot that becomes Breathless. Linklater tracks Godard, collaborators, and lovers through the chaos of inventing the French New Wave on no money and maximum nerve. Felix Moati and Rebecca Marder fill out a ensemble that treats film history as living argument. At 106 minutes, it is tighter than Sirāt’s desert trance — compare both on the France and Spain hubs.
How it ranks in 2026 world cinema
Empire’s midyear world column and Metacritic’s arthouse list both flagged Nouvelle Vague beside Kleber Mendonça Filho’s Secret Agent and Oliver Laxe’s Sirāt. On /best/2026/, France now has a 2026 anchor beyond catalog classics. Cross-border curiosity: /compare/nouvelle-vague-2026/vs/the-secret-agent-2026/ — European auteurism, two temperatures.
Verdict
Nouvelle Vague is not entry-level Linklater — it assumes you know why Breathless mattered — but it rewards that literacy generously. Audiences at 75% wanted more emotional entry ramps; critics at 90% wanted exactly this level of insider passion. Essential for world-cinema readers tracking Best Movies of 2026.