It's a familiar story no doubt. New exotic girl arrives at school - she's rebellious, feisty, carefree, attractive - an instant hit, in other words. But she has a horrible secret that could rip these relationships apart. The most telling moment that convinces us of this truth is near the end as Sarah quietly whispers into Charlie's ear all these terrible little things that slowly build and build until they become more than just bullying or patronising. In that moment I almost feel inclined to do what Charlie does. The rest of the conflict is silly high school stuff that doesn't really drive towards that tragic ending. Spreading rumours and insulting via graffiti doesn't mean the end of the world.
The film is shot with a penchant for naturalism, like many indie dramas do these days, which means the camera nervously observes these intimate moments like a fly on the wall. But Laurent seems to contradict this style at will, with inserts of shots that are clearly planned from the get go. The plane with Sarah in it roaring overhead a despondent Charlie, using architectural frames to indicate figurative distance despite literal closeness, and making Sarah hover like a ghost over Charlie until she fades away and out of focus. The most egregious of these however is the way "We are Young" ironically flares in the background of the pulsing club whilst Charlie cowers, chilled by the threat on her life. This seems to be a rather deliberate bypass of the style which forbids non-diegetic music. The two young leads do a great job, but the emotional distress becomes near insufferable with the repeated gasps and high pitch whines that shout out what to feel. And in the constant smash cuts that seem to think that less is more and urge our imaginations to fill in the gaps with horrors of our own, what really happens is the shallowness of the narrative is exposed.
The film is shot with a penchant for naturalism, like many indie dramas do these days, which means the camera nervously observes these intimate moments like a fly on the wall. But Laurent seems to contradict this style at will, with inserts of shots that are clearly planned from the get go. The plane with Sarah in it roaring overhead a despondent Charlie, using architectural frames to indicate figurative distance despite literal closeness, and making Sarah hover like a ghost over Charlie until she fades away and out of focus. The most egregious of these however is the way "We are Young" ironically flares in the background of the pulsing club whilst Charlie cowers, chilled by the threat on her life. This seems to be a rather deliberate bypass of the style which forbids non-diegetic music. The two young leads do a great job, but the emotional distress becomes near insufferable with the repeated gasps and high pitch whines that shout out what to feel. And in the constant smash cuts that seem to think that less is more and urge our imaginations to fill in the gaps with horrors of our own, what really happens is the shallowness of the narrative is exposed.