That’s the sort of trick this refined movie performs on its viewers, pushing clouds apart one after the other till a fact bursts via like a ray of daylight. There’s one other film to be made right here, skewering the clueless liberal sensibilities of Gabriel and his crew. However this isn’t that movie, even when the climactic second in Gabriel’s magnum opus is pretentious and a little bit foolish. As a substitute, administrators Lise Akoka and Romane Gueret’s main intention with “The Worst Ones” is to indicate how being forged on this movie impacts the kid actors.
Akoka and Gueret are beneficiant with all of their characters, together with Gabriel. Manufacturing assistant Judith (Esther Archambault) takes a real curiosity in Lily (Mallory Wanecque), the unpopular teenage lady talked about above. Lily—who hasn’t been the identical since her little brother died of most cancers—has been branded a “slut” by her friends. And her position within the movie isn’t serving to. The boy who performs her little brother within the film, Ryan (Timéo Mahault), has the identical emotional points as his character. And as we see in a scene the place the boy’s estranged mom has to justify it to a social employee, his participation within the venture additional destabilizes his already shaky dwelling life.
A lot of the movie concentrates on following Lily and Ryan chronologically via the manufacturing. from casting to the wrap celebration. Unstable Jessy (Loïc Pech) and withdrawn Maylis (Melina Vanderplancke) play supporting roles on this film and Gabriel’s. Maylis seems to be the one character who sees clearly all the pieces that’s happening round her and quits the manufacturing halfway via. “I simply didn’t prefer it,” she mutters when Gabriel presses her for a purpose why.
“The Worst Ones” additionally makes use of nonprofessional actors for its core ensemble: Out of the principle forged, Heldenbergh is the one one who’s ever appeared in a characteristic movie earlier than this one. That places the film in a difficult state of affairs because it makes an attempt to sidestep the identical exploitation it’s critiquing within the film-within-a-film and, by extension, the trade as a complete. Right here, the life like setting and deal with the kid actors are an asset. When the digital camera lingers on Manecque’s face as she watches older, extra glamorous crew members partying after a protracted day on set or on Mahault’s as he inspects the fowl cages which are an enormous a part of his character’s story arc, it captures one thing pure and unaffected that claims extra concerning the containers that society places these youngsters into than any monologue or plot contrivance.
