Rating: NR | Runtime: 73 minutes
Release Date: October 18th, 2023 (France) / April 5th, 2024 (USA)
Studio: Gébéka Films / GKIDS
Director(s): Sébastien Laudenbach & Chiara Malta
Writer(s): Chiara Malta & Sébastien Laudenbach

You’re chickening out, aren’t you?

The most precious thing Linda (Mélinée Leclerc) and her mother (Clotilde Hesme’s Paulette) have to remember her late father by is a green ring. It’s been years since his death and the young girl still tries to sneak into her mom’s room to wear it to school. On this day, however, Paulette is at the end of her rope. She orders Linda to put it away so they can leave. And when she returns home to find it missing, she assumes the girl stole it anyway. Angry that her daughter lied and misplaced the jewelry, Paulette takes her to her sister’s (Laetitia Dosch’s Astrid) as a punishment. Only upon returning does she discover Linda didn’t take it after all.

Sébastien Laudenbach and Chiara Malta Chicken for Linda! therefore truly begins with a display of mortifying guilt. Yes, there’s a prologue of Linda’s dad dying and an expository scene introducing the neighborhood and characters we’ll soon spend a wild day with, but it’s Paulette’s apology and promise to give Linda anything she wants as redress that sparks the ensuing adventure. Because while the girl’s request of chicken and peppers (her father’s famous dish) should be simple (besides the obvious emotions conjured), Paris happens to have begun a general strike shutting down all grocery stores. So, Paulette must improvise.

What follows unfolds as one would assume before logical realism gets replacement by unbridled absurdity. There’s chicken theft. An unmonitored oven ready to burn down an apartment complex. A naked police officer. And a watermelon delivery driver (Patrick Pineau’s Jean-Michel) who might just save the day with a little romance … if he survives not having an EpiPen. Linda and her young friends soon hijack the narrative with a willingness to do anything and everything to make this dish while the adults find themselves running around, clueless about what to do. Half the time Jean-Michel’s mother is passed out and Astrid angrily binging candy.

Beyond the humor and grounded fantasy (so many people would be dead if this were “real life”), though, is a heartfelt story about two women struggling to connect in the present because of their inability to talk about the past. Because Linda loving that ring as much as Paulette has nothing to do with the ring. All this girl wants is to remember a man she was too young to remember. And while everything could be solved with a good mother/daughter chat, a wholesome criminal romp has the potential to solidify their bond too. Because their undying love for Serge should be what gives them the strength to move forward together.

It’s a wonderful message told with a bottomless wealth of entertainment and gorgeous animation. The latter consists of mostly simple line drawings filled with solid colors to differentiate characters (Linda is yellow, her friend green, the police blue, etc.). When the camera is pulled back, the people become circles of those colors with their figures centered in the middle. When the sun goes down everything switches to “night mode” with the line drawings becoming those colors so the black of their bodies can move against the black of the background. Add a couple songs making it a quasi-musical and Chicken for Linda! proves a compact, lightning-paced and resonant lark.

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A scene between Linda and her mother Paulette in CHICKEN FOR LINDA!; courtesy of GKIDS.