The mini reviews continue! I just caught Cannes Palme d’Or winner The Class (Entres Les Murs) which is also France’s entry for the Best Foreign Language Oscar. The film follows an inner city Parisian high school class through a tumultuous pubescent angst filled year. The script is co-penned by François Bégaudeau who also stars with incredible depth of character as the class’s French teacher (prepare for an extensive lesson in French grammar, complete with English subtitles). All of the kids are also non-professionals and all do a remarkably excellent job. It seems a film must work the Verité style if it has any hope of winning Palme d’Or (last year’s 4…3…2…), and director Laurent Cantet obviously got the memo. It isn’t tough to mistake this for a documentary at the film’s opening. There aren’t a whole lot of typical plot arcs and anyone used to convenient resolution might be disappointed, but the film is certainly dramatic and a fascinating look at immigrant culture in France’s urban youth.

Slumdog Millionaire seems to be the most talked about prestige film around town and I went in with my expectations sky high. When will I learn? Don’t get me wrong, this is definitely an excellent and very enjoyable film. I recommend everyone catch it. But after all the buzz, I was hoping to be really wowed. The narrative is a pretty standard (though incredibly interesting) retelling of an Indian boy’s life as an orphan, struggling to rise out of the depths of poverty. The conflict centers around his complicated relationship with his criminal brother and his unrelenting love for his childhood girlfriend. All of this plays as flashback from the stage of an Indian game show where the boy, now grown, is about to win millions of rupees. Danny Boyle’s direction and the cinematography are superb, but I guess i just wanted a bit more from Simon Beaufoy’s script. Take out the orientalism of the world these kids live in and you’re left with a pretty tame plot lacking in any real character motivation. Now that I’ve said that I have to reiterate that this is a truly enjoyable and interesting film and I do recommend catching it. I just feel it necessary to spill a little contrarian ink given how much praise has been gifted. BTW – the final credit sequence is worth the price of admission alone.