It was the lowest-rated film in the main competition of the 2024 Cannes Film Festival by both French and international critics, who complained about the film being too long, full of cliches, misogynistic, that the love story wasn't credible, and that the two lead actors had no chemistry and were outshined by the two teenagers who played the younger versions of their respective characters. Screen International's Cannes jury grid gave the film a score of 1.4 out of 4 stars, while Chaos Reign's Cannes jury grid gave the film a score of 0.9 out of 4 stars.
François Civil and Karim Leklou had previously co-starred with director Gilles Lellouche in The Stronghold (2020), in which they all played police officers who worked together. In this film, Leklou and Civil play father and son.
The May 2024 issue of Vanity Fair France featured 17-year-old actors Malik Frikah and Mallory Wanecque in a sexually charged photoshoot in bed with François Civil and Adèle Exarchopoulos (who are both in their 30s) to promote this film. One of the photos features Civil holding Wanecque's feet. Behind-the-scenes images shared by the photoshoot's stylist showed both teen actors with their heads lying on Civil's lap in bed.
The only Black character in the film, Lionel (portrayed by Jean-Pascal Zadi), is restricted to being the target of racial slurs, the sidekick or the comic relief.
Loosely based on the 1997 best-selling Irish novel "Jackie Loves Johnser OK?" by Neville Thompson, whose French title is "L'Amour Ouf" (literally "Phew Love", and a pun with the expression "L'Amour Fou", literally "Crazy Love"), which is also this film's original title. This film is mostly based on West Side Story (1961) and Baz Luhrmann's Romeo + Juliet (1996).