PARALLEL TALES is Asghar Farhadi’s Weakest Movie

Oscar winning Iranian filmmaker Asghar Farhadi has made some of the most acclaimed international films of the past two decades, including A Separation and The Salesman. So how did a filmmaker this talented, working with an incredible cast including Isabelle Huppert, Virginie Efira, Vincent Cassel and Pierre Niney, end up making something this disappointing? In this video, I review Parallel Tales, Farhadi’s 2026 French-language drama and one of the biggest surprises of his career, his first true failure. The film is finspired by Krzysztof Kieślowski’s Dekalog and his cinema as a whole. On paper, it sounds like exactly the kind of morally complicated character drama Farhadi usually excels at. But despite some interesting ideas, the talented cast and a few promising moments, Parallel Tales doesn’t work and I explain why in the video. I also talk about the film’s connection to A Short Film About Love, why its central characters didn’t work for me, the significance of the Foley studio, and why I ultimately think this is Farhadi’s weakest movie yet. If you’ve seen the movie, let me know what you thought in the comments. #ParallelTales #AsgharFarhadi #MovieReview #IsabelleHuppert #VincentCassel #FilmReview #Cinema