Standing Tall

The youngster’s acting is excellent and serves perfectly to hold the story together. But what’s the point? Only towards the end does the film stop being a rambling, unoriginal and monotonous string of misdemeanors committed by a rebellious teenager and his subsequent court hearing before a judge played by Catherine Deneuve, which doesn’t arouse in the viewer even a hint of interest in the characters, nor does it constitute a proper film experience. Nothing really happens until the end, but a more thoughtful film would have come up with something after half an hour and used it as the foundation of a satisfying drama. (27/04/2016)

The film has something to build on - a strong theme, a great lead actor, and the ability to procedurally portray the system of care for troubled teenagers, but it does not have enough skills to move beyond mere empathy and lack of opinion, which is replaced by symptomatic and very cumbersome choice of classical music (unfortunately, this is not The Kid with a Bike). Bercot certainly does not lack interest and feeling in working with actors, but unfortunately she lacks the ability to build this portrait of a sociopath urgently, dynamically and with the ability to bring the viewer out of his comfort zone... The result is only a fairly decent social drama. [Cannes 2015] (14/05/2015)

I can't help but feel that if it had ended differently, I might have appreciated it more, but as it is, it seems like the film paints something that isn't entirely realistic. Maybe that's how human destiny, at least in this rendition, might actually turn out. The lead actor, Rod Paradot, however, really took on his role excellently and portrayed it very well in all aspects. (07/08/2017)