In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

This is a Initially it seems an interesting and dark movie, but the course of the film it is clear that the script and the dialogues have no rhyme or reason.The idea of the script is interesting, but unfortunately it's just an idea. Many points are left open in the story that is essentially weak. The main character who is a kid is pretty dumb and it is impossible to know how he evolves into a supposed leadership. The soundtrack is higher than the dialogues and compete with each other. The only thing that is reasonable is photography, which brings a dull and tense atmosphere. I saw this movie without consulting the opinions of IMDb. Otherwise I would not have seen it. It's just a waste of time.

Brady Corbet has assimilated many wonderful visual styles which he has picked up over the past several years working with master directors such as Von Trier and Haneke, but this is all Corbet has accomplished. Reappropriating stunning visual film language does not a good director make, because used haphazardly the images lose their ominous, dark tone and are instead replaced with empty somewhat pretentious images that have nothing story or acting wise holding it up. So all we are left is a misfire. While Corbet is similar to another young director, Xavier Dolan, in that they are trapped exercising their personal influences, Dolan has more innate talent. I would say that Corbet's command of the camera at times is promising. The sad part is he has a great skeleton but no meat and few functioning organs. The performances are a bit flat, though they are only working with what they are giving. Bejo is tiresome and Pattinson is...Pattinson. The best scene is in the beginning where the young boy gets in trouble with snowballs, a possible reference to Abel Gance's Napoleon. Corbet like Napoleon is undone by his ambition. But I do wish more directors were this ambitious in their debuts. If nothing else Corbet swung for the fences...and he should know better: nobody does Haneke better than Haneke.

This is a brilliantly brave attempt to make a challenging and striking piece of art.On that level it works. The opening credits and first 10 minutes are intense. The Scott Walker soundtrack really pulls you in and immediately makes you think this is no ordinary film. And for that I loved it.The acting is absolutely superb. Not at any stage do you think they are actors. The boy, the mum and the tutor are the stand outs.The cinematography is superb, particularly near the end with the camera circling a dome, beautifully simple. The overall look and feel reminded me of The Duke Of Burgundy (One of my fav films of recent)There's not a lot of love in this family, thats for sure. The film is rather dull and slow though. I did find myself snnozebusting.The ending made no sense either. It wasn't until I chatted to the guys in the cinema that we sort of worked it out.I really respect the director for making a film like this. Im looking forward to his next film. Lets just hope more interesting stuff happens.If you liked the Witch, you'll love this.

In 1939 Jean Paul Sartre wrote a short story named "Childhood of a Leader", that deals with identity, sexuality and its relation to fascism.Corbet's "loose adaptation" of "Childhood of a Leader" is indeed very loose. All the Freudian and identity elements that formed the core of Sartre's short piece were discarded, and whatever was left ( not much ) was then watered down into a full feature film.You can feel it throughout.Photography and acting are really good. Had this been turned into short film instead, I'm sure my review would've been much different.