Part of Lise and Jonnie’s What A Wonderful World: May 30 days, 30 countries.

I think I have a particular allergy to the Dardanne Brothers.

I dropped into this morning’s screening of the Palm D’Or winning L’Enfant oblivious to the fact that it was a Dardanne. I saw the critical darling Kid with a Bike a few years ago at TIFF and pretty much hated it.

As L’Enfant unfolded, I began to feel that same revulsion. I was well rested, not in a bad mood, just open to what was unfolding but I HATED the titular Enfant Terrible Bruno. Now, I’m sure wiser film lovers would say ‘that’s the point’. Well, not for me. The opening few scenes of his…

More than anything else, Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne's L'Enfant highlights the subtle difference between a moral movie and a moralizing one. The action of this film is predicated entirely upon the moral (or amoral) choices of its characters, but the filmmakers are so careful not to interject their own commentary or to make any larger statements about human nature that the result is something far more powerful and profound than condescendingly saying "X is good, Y is bad." The Dardennes simply point the camera at their story and say "this is what it is."

It tells the story of Bruno, a callous and immature petty thief who exists at the very bottom of Belgian society. We first see him through…

71/100

[Originally published by Las Vegas Weekly.]

Even if you were to watch L'Enfant (The Child) with the sound turned off and the subtitles removed, you'd quickly realize that there's no conceivable way it could have been made in America. It's not that the characters come across as stereotypically European—neither Bruno (Jérémie Renier), the young, towheaded petty thief at its center, nor Sonia (Déborah François), his moon- and whey-faced girlfriend, spends any time sipping espressos in sidewalk cafés, both of them being too preoccupied with moment-to-moment survival. Nor does the small, dingy factory town of Seraing, where Belgian filmmakers Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne (La Promesse, Rosetta, The Son) invariably shoot, look all that different from, say, the crummier sections of…

I honestly wasn't impressed by the first Dardenne brothers film i saw, this is a much needed revitalization of faith in them. As far as i'm concerned a realistic portrayal of the downtrodden will only take you so far, documenting irritating people doing irritating things is not something you can employ the ''i point you look'' mantra to with a high success rate. Romanian New Wave seems to be hard at work mastering how to make great films out of terrible, terrible situations. Such is life in Romania. L'Enfant succeeds at becoming a captivating story with deeper emotional impact with characters whose fates you ponder long past the runtime.

Bruno plays the pathetic helpless titular character whose own decisions only…

Part of Lise and Jonnie’s What A Wonderful World: May 30 days, 30 countries.

I think I have a particular allergy to the Dardanne Brothers.

I dropped into this morning’s screening of the Palm D’Or winning L’Enfant oblivious to the fact that it was a Dardanne. I saw the critical darling Kid with a Bike a few years ago at TIFF and pretty much hated it.

As L’Enfant unfolded, I began to feel that same revulsion. I was well rested, not in a bad mood, just open to what was unfolding but I HATED the titular Enfant Terrible Bruno. Now, I’m sure wiser film lovers would say ‘that’s the point’. Well, not for me. The opening few scenes of his…

I have never been so emotionally involved in a film as I was with L'Enfant. While I watched the film, I screamed at the screen and also cried, which is uncharacteristic of me. Belgian filmmakers Jean-Pierre Dardenne and Luc Dardenne have made a very special and emotional film.

The story is about a young, unmarried couple who have a baby boy. Bruno (the father of the baby) is a petty thief who is irresponsible when it comes to managing his life and respecting relationships. He has no true regard and respect for anyone, including Sonia (the mother of his child) and their baby. He loves Sonia, but he is incapable of understanding how one behaves in an adult relationship.

One…

71/100

[Originally published by Las Vegas Weekly.]

Even if you were to watch L'Enfant (The Child) with the sound turned off and the subtitles removed, you'd quickly realize that there's no conceivable way it could have been made in America. It's not that the characters come across as stereotypically European—neither Bruno (Jérémie Renier), the young, towheaded petty thief at its center, nor Sonia (Déborah François), his moon- and whey-faced girlfriend, spends any time sipping espressos in sidewalk cafés, both of them being too preoccupied with moment-to-moment survival. Nor does the small, dingy factory town of Seraing, where Belgian filmmakers Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne (La Promesse, Rosetta, The Son) invariably shoot, look all that different from, say, the crummier sections of…

I honestly wasn't impressed by the first Dardenne brothers film i saw, this is a much needed revitalization of faith in them. As far as i'm concerned a realistic portrayal of the downtrodden will only take you so far, documenting irritating people doing irritating things is not something you can employ the ''i point you look'' mantra to with a high success rate. Romanian New Wave seems to be hard at work mastering how to make great films out of terrible, terrible situations. Such is life in Romania. L'Enfant succeeds at becoming a captivating story with deeper emotional impact with characters whose fates you ponder long past the runtime.

Bruno plays the pathetic helpless titular character whose own decisions only…

More than anything else, Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne's L'Enfant highlights the subtle difference between a moral movie and a moralizing one. The action of this film is predicated entirely upon the moral (or amoral) choices of its characters, but the filmmakers are so careful not to interject their own commentary or to make any larger statements about human nature that the result is something far more powerful and profound than condescendingly saying "X is good, Y is bad." The Dardennes simply point the camera at their story and say "this is what it is."

It tells the story of Bruno, a callous and immature petty thief who exists at the very bottom of Belgian society. We first see him through…