Who is this popular film critic, but threatened with death?

Why is the influencer Regelegorila as formidable as he is feared?image: regelegorila (instagram, youtube)

For several years, he has terrorized comedians and angered Internet users with his deliberately divisive videos. Provocative and widely followed at the same time, the Frenchman “Regelegorila” brings his banter to the Cannes Film Festival for the first time. How did this movie sniper build his success? Portrait.

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“Who are you to dare to talk about films?” In 2026, cinema still remains (a little) a private preserve. While the new music and gastronomic critics have broken the corporate cordon by forcing their way onto social networks, the big screen resists, tacitly protected by the guardians of knowledge. Talking about it on social networks, yes, but not all and not just any way.

However, in recent years, film specialists but also many influencers seem to have a common grudge against the same French content creator who has recently seen his popularity explode. His nickname? “Regelegorila”, which means “king of the gorillas” in Romanian, his country of origin. A joke that Riad, the real name of this 28-year-old from Lille, draws from his love for King Kong of Peter Jackson from a 2005.

In May 2026, “Redge” and its million subscribers on social networks arrive for the first time at the Cannes Film Festival. The man who quickly made a reputation as a cinema sniper did not forget to slip his provocative verve into the suitcase and takes great pleasure in heating up his community.

A recent example, among many others:

“Also stop breaking us with your stupid analyses.”an Internet user will respond immediately. This type of tense exchange has become the daily life of the young creator, who has gradually been able to transform his passion for cinema into a real livelihood.

If his numerous positions are so bitterly fought, it is firstly because “Regelegorila” is accused of having become the specialist of rage-baitinga technique which consists of quickly arousing indignation with poorly supported and very divisive content, just to masturbate the algorithm, create engagement and you print cashas they say.

Recently, one format in particular has transformed him into the final boss: judging the ranking of other people’s favorite films, armed with arguments that rarely go further than “yes, it’s good”, “no, it’s crap”, like the lethal thumb of Julius Caesar. And everyone goes through it, from ordinary people to famous comedians, including PSG players, like in this video published at the end of 2025, where he is deliberately very mean.

Long before the birth of the dreaded “Regelegorila”, revealing one’s favorite films has always been a delicate act. Slipping an obscure and old Hungarian feature film to the top of the podium will be considered elitist, conversely, praising a vulgar comedy with Christian Clavier is guaranteed to receive mocking laughter.

In other words, if this French network star didn’t invent anything, he knew how to take advantage of it with a freshness and a nerve to be saluted. From now on, celebrities and influencers of all stripes go so far as to publish their top 10 just to provoke the fury of the César du cinema and benefit, in the process, from his audience. A bit masochistic? Of course. But it makes everyone angry and funny. Which amounts to more or less the same thing, in the algorithm’s radar.

His success began to titillate the traditional media, surprised to see this enthusiast being taken down every time he opened his mouth. Very recently, Konbini opened his “Video-Club” for him and Brut handed him the microphone in a long interview.

All, with the same objective: to know if the one who shakes French cinema is as detestable as they claim. “Are people going to threaten you with death because you didn’t like Spiderman 12?”, asks the journalist from Brut. “Yeah, for example. One day there will be a madman, I don’t know. But I refuse to live in fear,” will respond the main person concerned, who seems as worried as amused by the extreme reactions he arouses.

We learn, for example, that his most enduring haters try to silence him by all means, going so far as to try to “break the partnerships” he has with brands. If he embraces his provocative side, he swears that his goal is that “everyone talks about cinema”.

One of the subjects that has been pursuing him for a long time is taking off on the sidelines ofInterstellar by Christopher Nolan to land in the societal chronicle. The content creator notably maintained that it is, according to him, everyone’s favorite film and the most “quoted by men” of his generation. The other debate that sticks to him, that of the noble VO versus the VF, which he loathes.

Not to mention that his tackles are now feared by the actors themselves. Recently, actress Anamaria Vartolomei made it clear on the set of Daily that Regelegorila considers that she has been “very bad in almost all the films I have made.”

The political turn

He could have lived off his income from YouTube since 2019 already. As a good guy, he wanted to finish his studies in eco-management and wander into the (real) professional world before jumping full-time onto the internet. A success built slowly (fifteen years of videos under the clock) which allows Regelegorila to declare 183,950 euros in turnover in 2025, including 86,235 euros thanks to partnerships.

If some consider it illegitimate to talk about cinema, it is clear that the guy is a hard worker, with a minimum of five videos per week, not counting the press viewings and the hours spent on Netflix watching the “bad” last episode of the fifth season of Stranger Thingsinstead of celebrating the New Year with his friends.

A film agenda which does not prevent him from deliberately straying into subjects much more explosive than his opinion on Full Philthe latest Quentin Dupieux with the American actor Woody Harrelson: politics. “Regelegorila” officially calls itself center-left, a rather liberal socialist, somewhere between “macronism and ecologists”.

Recently, he seems closer to La France insoumise than to the ruling party and is not hiding it so much. He frequently attacks the far right, frequently bounces back on political information in general and, again, without mincing his words. This weekend, for example, he singled out rapper Booba for sharing a video of Marine Le Pen.

Un déclic récent? “When I saw the centrists allying with the extreme right. For me, it’s a no go… I’m lucky to have a voice that is listened to, it’s a duty not to say anything. Personally, the future worries me and I would like to be on the right side of history,” he said. Brut. A commitment which is clearly not without consequences:

If the soon-to-be thirty-year-old loves the web so much, it’s not only because he excels in rage-baiting. With his friendly and accessible guy face, his naturalness and his simple words, he casually allows many Internet users who do not subscribe to the diatribes of Télérama or Libé to make your way through the rather dense jungle of films that come out every week.

You just need to browse his YouTube account for a few minutes to see that the guy is a real cinema enthusiast. Young people can find information, reviews and good filming anecdotes there without having to be ashamed of not being approved film buffs.

Little bonus: getting lost in the comments of his videos is entertainment at least as spicy as his provocative verve, as his community tells the story of the polarized times that are ours.