Cold Water
Director: Olivier Assayas
Year Released: 1994
Rating: 1.0
After-school Teens-In-Trouble Episode ... French Style. Two kids find themselves on the skids: one steals records and has an interest in explosives (introduced in act one, but they never go off in act three) but eludes the police, while his female cohort gets nabbed; later, they decide to run off to a commune together. There really isn't much to hold onto: the film is belabored and stale and its story of wayward youth from bad families has been done by other filmmakers more creatively (I know Assayas has seen The 400 Blows a couple of times) - Assayas' World of Teenagers is both cruel and desolate, though anyone with common sense should realize these characters consistently make bad decisions and (understandably) suffer as a result: their misery does not evoke pity. Virginie Ledoyen and Rachael Leigh Cook were separated at birth.
