I Love America 2022

Lisa, Sophie Marceau is a 50-year-old filmmaker who leaves France to start a new life in Los Angeles. She lands in a sunny, restless city and stays with her gay friend Luka, Djanis Bouzyani, who moved to LA from France five years earlier and now runs his own drag-queen bar. The two share a quick, easy companionship as Lisa begins to untangle what she wants from love and work, all while the city hums around them.

A brief return to Paris follows the news of her mother’s death, a loss that pulls Lisa back into memories she’d rather forget. In a series of flashes, her mother—Mère Lisa, Sophie Verbeeck—appears in episodes that braid parenting, identity, and the stubborn patterns of attraction that Lisa carries with her across continents. These memories are joined by other childhood scenes: Lisa at four, eight, and twelve, each vignette shaping her current approach to relationships.

Back in Los Angeles, Lisa throws herself into a new screenplay, letting the blank page become a shield and a doorway. A fortune teller warns that she is destined to lead a solitary life, a line that sticks with her as she tests the idea of connection against her craving for independence. With Luka’s guidance, she opens a dating-app account, stepping into a world where desire can be quick and volatile, and where genuine warmth often hides behind digital profiles and clever banter.

The first encounter that follows doesn’t go as planned, and Lisa moves on to meet John, Colin Woodell. At first glance, their chemistry seems promising, as two adults navigating the complexities of age, desire, and honesty in a modern romance. But a revelation looms: John learns from Lisa’s passport that she is indeed 50, a disclosure that challenges the age seen on the dating app and unsettles the tentative trust forming between them. The moment shifts the dynamic between them, leading to a choice about what they truly want from each other. John then invites her to meet on her birthday—a request that feels both intimate and calculated, yet carries the potential to redefine what they could be.

Parallel to Lisa’s pursuit of a meaningful connection, Luka confronts his own longing for something lasting. He has spent years moving from one brief encounter to the next, hoping to find someone who can stay. By the end of the film, Luka also forms a relationship that hints at real commitment and mutual growth, suggesting that even in a story anchored in fleeting moments, there can be a future that feels hopeful.

Throughout, the film layers Lisa’s inner reflections with the recurring memory sequences, showing how her past with her parents continues to color her sense of love, trust, and vulnerability. The interplay between past and present invites viewers to consider how early experiences, age, and choice intersect in the search for connection in a bustling city and a restless heart.