Overrated

a film so unique, intoxicating and bizarre that it not only demands another viewing, but is also forgivable as a satirical comedy where the jokes eventually take the back seat.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

Blistering performances.

At first I thought the premise was: which of these two pretty French girls will be first to, um, - no, won't go there. Is this film meant to be a kind of soft-pron teaseathon? Synopsis: A hot, flame-haired damsel awaits her confirmation. Her father has run off with somebody: her mother is kind of hot. The hot priest (if you go for beard and glasses - but he's also Lionel Messi on the soccer pitch and he knows all about Mother Teresa) takes all their confessions, except for hot, cheeky young whoever, who (playfully) sexually assaults our heroine but she quite likes it really.Her equally hot friend goes away somewhere.Her grandpa gets excited when she gives him a sponge bath.After that, I fell asleep.Plot-required bosoms, old/young and pre-confirmation eroticism, pretty sleazy actually. This film will make you feel creepy. All in the best possible taste, of course. 1 star for production budget, which wasn't awful.

'Un poison violent' (literally translated: 'A violent poison'; the title was taken from a song by Serge Gainsbourg) has a lot going on in the lives of quite a few characters in a rural French village, but the focus stays well-proportioned on that of a teenage girl named Anna.Anna experiences many troubles; her devotion to a Catholic life versus a more earthly life (boyfriend, sex, body), her father just left his mother for a younger woman (which causes her mother much grief that rubs off on her as well), she helps nursing her sick grandfather (who is also burdening her with his unadulterated sex-drive) and a close (girl)friend is leaving her for a while. Quite miraculously, all these problems never amount to an indiscernible heap, but each trouble gets its fair share of attention in all of the many small and fragile scenes.There is frequent, but terrific use of a cappella songs, mostly covers (as far as I could tell), such as 'Greensleeves' (a traditional) and 'Creep' (by Radiohead). The film has a very natural feel to it (very French, if that would mean anything), is at times quite melancholic, and - Hallelujah - none too prudish, either. A pleasure to behold as things unfold.A good 8 out of 10.

In 'Love Like Poison', a schoolgirl returns home from boarding school, to face her depressed mother (who advises her, not to never doubt her beauty but rather, that when she doubts her beauty, never to tell a man!), her peripatetic father, a boy who fancies her, her ailing grandfather (who might do the same), and the local parish priest. It's not badly done, but there doesn't seem much point to the story: life (and death) happens, but nothing seems more dramatic or pointed than any particular sequence of real life where you can't quite get everything you want. The use of music in the soundtrack is also overdone, as it seems to be punching at a higher emotional weight than the underlying film. This is not a long film, but it feels more like opening scenes from a real story, over-extended, than a movie in itself.

You probably need to be in the mood to get the best out of yet another bildungsroman. In terms of pace it's like Erich Rohmer on crutches; in terms of plot it's like Erich Rohmer stuck for ideas. In no particular order Anna, a young girl at Convent school returns home for the holidays to learn that her father has taken it on the Jesse Owens, possibly with another woman, leaving her mother devastated and seeking solace with a local priest who is also a family friend. Meanwhile in terms of old life grandfather is dying by inches and in terms of new life there's a boy of Anna's age in close proximity. And that's about it. Nothing much happens and takes its time about it. On the right day the viewer will find something in it that speaks to him; on the wrong day ... well, let's not go there.