ChicRawIdol A brilliant film that helped define a genre

FuzzyTagz If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

ThedevilChoose When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

TrueHello Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

KobusAdAstra This review may contain slight spoilers.This is the heartbreaking story of Julien, a young and bright schoolboy from a seemingly normal family. Julien's dad is a hard-working academic at university, his mother a great cook who keeps the household going, and Julien's older sister is about to enter university. We quickly learn that all is not well. Julien's manipulative mother has a major issue with her son growing up and would like to keep him at home, as hers alone. When he starts rebelling and questioning her actions, she starts unraveling, mentally and even physically assaulting Julien. She clearly has serious psychological problems.His indifferent, remote father is a busy man, who in his spare time escapes home by playing tennis with his mates. Julien's dad turns a blind eye, even when his sister complains to him about the way her spiteful and controlling mother is treating her younger brother. Things get worse, with Julien threatening to commit suicide. Then one afternoon, it all comes to a point...This is a depressing, unsettling and somewhat manipulative psychological drama with outstanding performances by Julien (Victor Séveax) and his hateful, selfish mother (Nathalie Baye). Great camera-work and excellent, foreboding soundtrack too. 8/10.

OJT Believable heart wrenching horrible unhealthy story about a mother too much in love with her son, smothering him with over-protection, and going even further. 12 year old Julien had his mother as best friend, or rather the opposite. He is his mother's best friend. She does not know when to let go, and she does not know when to give him the needed space, not understanding growing up and going into puberty, and the trauma the boy feels by this.Extremely well played by the two main persons. The mother is a mother from hell, played by a frightening Nathalie Baye. The father is ignorant to what goes on, being distant as many are. Julien, brilliantly played by Victor Sevaux, tries all he can to get away from home for a day or two, trying to make his mother love him less. It's painful to watch. When his sisters addresses that Julien is not happy and well, she is ignored.When mother finds a love letter to her son in the mail from his girlfriend Alice, she opens it with no hesitation, and reacts as jealous as it's possible to do. The sister tells, and he finds the letter shred to pieces in the junk. He's not allowed to do anything without the mother approving and telling in beforehand. And when he decides to show appreciation, she reacts like a psycho.But after a while Julien is driven into a corner, and decides to act...

Armand a mother. her family. and her son. scenes from a war. picture of a disorganized family. more than a film, a scale of tension, emotions, desires. because the possessive mother, the disobedient son, the absent father are only masks of a society. the refuges - football, grand mother piano lessons, the girl friend , career are fragile refuges. essence - nuances of fear. the fear of mother for future failure of Julien. the fear of father front of every day events. the fear of son , like fear of each teenager to be out of circle. and the seed of fear - different definition of love. nothing else. only a precise beautiful performance of each actor and the subtle picture of each piece of crisis. a cold movie. but suitable for everyday bruises.

Sindre Kaspersen 12-year-old Julien lives with his mother, father and sister in a French suburb. His strict activity calendar consist of school, piano lessons with his grandmother, dancing hours with his mother, soccer practice with the boys and homework. His sister studies, his mother is a housewife and his father comes home from work late at night. Besides his regular routines Julien spends time with his girlfriend Alice, but his routine based days are starting to wear him down, and when his mother finds out that his grades are decreasing she demands better results from her son. Julien tries to please his mother, but is unable to meet her demands. In time she becomes controlling, questions everything he does and forces him to lie to his friends so that she can spend more time with him. Julien feels trapped in his own home and decides to ignore his mother's demands. His mother is broken by her sons disobedience and starts humiliating her son. Julien's silent and distant father shows him little interest and attention, has no idea about what is happening and lives on like everything is perfectly alright. Julien continues to ignore his mothers demands, but doesn't realize the consequences of his actions. His mother reveals him again, and this time she deprives him of all social interaction with others. She can't tolerate his behavior and begins to abuse him mentally and physically. Julien is isolated in his home and his mental state is regressing.Martial Fougeron's steady, structural and stylistically directed psychological drama about child upbringing, is narrated mostly from the main character's point of view and is a dense and tense study of character of a tyrannical mother and her victimized son which is superbly acted by the whole ensemble, and especially by veteran actress Nathalie Baye as the mother and Victor Sévaux in his debut feature film role as the son. This distinctly photographed chamber piece where the dialog creates as much tension as the subtle editing, manages to maintain a persistent claustrophobic and foreboding atmosphere and is a highly concentrated thriller about a shattered French upper class family.