Director: Laurent Cantet
Year Released: 2017
Rating: 2.0
Novelist Olivia (Marina Foïs), who runs a writing course with individuals from mixed backgrounds (Africa, the Middle East), finds one of her students, Antoine (Matthieu Lucci), has far-right political leanings and wants information from him for one of her books-in-progress ... but he's not helpful. While I like Cantet's thought process going into this - what is the exact mindset for people who cling to neo-Fascist beliefs? - it never expands itself beyond the thesis-level (it's probably too broad and complicated for a single film to try to tackle): it turns out these white nationalists are just scared and angry and like video games and playing around with guns (well ... duh) and Antoine remains just as much a mystery at the finale as he did at the beginning. The in-class sessions are too on-the-nose - the script could have been a little delicate - and I'm not convinced working on a shipping vessel is going to 'fix' anyone's hate-filled ideology ... because if that's the case let's round up these alt-Right buffoons and introduce them to the open seas.
