Mia Hansen-Løve's melancholy Eden is both a look at the rise of the French EDM scene, and a rumination on the pain of not quite making it. A sort of roman à clef about the experiences of Hansen-Løve's brother, Eden follows Paul (Félix de Givry, never not looking like a young David Boreanaz) as he makes his way through France's electronic music world in the 1990s and beyond, including his stint throwing a weekly dance party that goes on for years without leading to bigger and better things. (That's the worst.) Meanwhile, his friends and fellow DJs Thomas (Vincent Lacoste) and Guy-Man (Arnaud Azoulay) go on to form Daft Punk, achieving the fame and success and eventual Tron: Legacy cameos that stubbornly elude Paul. The music in Eden is of course terrific, and if the public debut of Daft Punk's game-changing "Da Funk" seen here isn't how it happened in real life, then it should have been. Paul's love of the music is no less strong, but it never translates into making it big, and Eden may especially resonate with those who've struggled and put their all into their art, only to see their colleagues succeed and pull up the ladder behind them. Plus, it has a good beat and you can dance to it.
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