Peak Everything Film Review: Anxious Love

Peak Everything is a quirky rom-com that uses the protagonist’s eco-anxiety to tell a magical realist tale of love in the face of inevitable climate disasters.

Adam does what he can to deal with his negative feelings. At a meeting with a therapist, he admits his suicidal tendencies; it wouldn’t be so bad to die right now and skip the incoming apocalypse after all. He listens to guided meditations, which transport him to a snowy landscape that’s untouched by climate change. And he makes regular use of a therapeutic solar lamp, which is supposed to help with anxiety. When he desperately needs someone to talk to one evening, he calls said lamp’s support hotline and is connected with Tina (Piper Perabo, of Spontaneous).

He tells this friendly voice of all his worries, and for a minute the weight of the world is off his shoulders, but he is deeply ashamed when Tina points out to him that this is a support hotline for technical issues. She encourages him to keep talking nevertheless, and they come to realize they have quite a few things in common. They continue to have a few more calls, each time with a different excuse. Maybe a mandated follow-up call to check if everything is alright or a broken lamp that needs to be replaced. But each call ends abruptly due to extreme weather conditions.

The motif of climate events is present throughout Peak Everything (Amour Apocalypse). During their first call, a rainstorm with thunder is eventually so loud that they can barely hear each other anymore. Heatwaves make it hard to stay consistent with Adam’s fitness plan. While Snow, whom both Adam and Tina dearly love, only appears as a fantasy in the ideal landscape in his head. Climate change and the extreme weather that comes with it are the cause for Adam’s anxiety, but director Anne Émond also uses them as a fantastic element of magical realism to physicalize his anxiety.

Adam and Tina’s final phone call dramatically ends when an earthquake cuts the line. Deeply worried, Adam decides to drive over to her office and check if she’s fine. Suddenly, he finds himself face-to-face with the soothing voice from the phone in the form of a real person. Since Tina can’t go to her place due to the ongoing earthquake warning, Adam takes her to his home. As they spend time together and grow closer, the weight of the world seems to leave Adam’s shoulders once again. It’s not that he forgets about all the worries he had before, but he begins to take charge of his own life and even starts to take a real stance against climate change in small acts that he can only hope will have an impact, like slashing the tires of an SUV that unfortunately turns out to be from his neighbor, who immediately recognizes him and presses charges. But it’s the thought that counts, right?

Now, before you start screaming about a manic pixie dream girl narrative (which the movie is definitely guilty of to some degree), Tina herself also experiences an important journey through their time together. Staying at Adam’s place allows her to be away from her husband (oh yeah, by the way, she’s married) for the first time in who knows how many years. For her, this becomes a reminder of paths not taken. She’s freed from the static role she has had to play for so many years. Peak Everything is nevertheless a film with a very male focus, which is a little surprising given that writer/director Anne Émond is a woman.

Despite that, her script is overall really strong. It’s very funny with lots of dry humor and deeply romantic in a delightfully quirky way. More than that, it really understands the anxiety of our modern times. So many movies want to tell stories about the widespread loneliness and anxiety so many people feel without understanding where that comes from. But Peak Everything is acutely aware it’s because the world is screwed. It’s almost impossible to not be depressed these days unless you just willfully ignore the state of things around you. And still, Anne Émond manages to find some positivity in all of that and creates a life-affirming rom-com for the modern day.

Peak Everything (Amour Apocalypse) premiered at the Cannes Film Festival on May 18, 2025, at the Quinzaine des Cinéastes, and will be screened again on May 19.