Entre les Murs [The Class] (dir. Laurence Cantet)
* * 1/2
Hey, have you seen the fourth season of The Wire? If you have, there's nothing for you here. Laurence Cantet's Palme D'Or winner is unfailingly realistic, yes, but seems reluctant to draw in the viewer as thoroughly as it should. It could pass as a documentary, certainly, but that wouldn't have made it a better film. As it follows the life of a homeroom class in inner-city Paris over the course of a scholastic year, and we find ourselves engaging with the often distanced personalities of the students, there's a nagging sensation that there should be an added layer of subtext to be found - yet there's little to be derived from the old process of trying to turn "animals" into reasonable young people. The presentation is novel, but the content is too familiar by half.
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