The Childhood of a Leader (2016)

As Good As It Gets

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

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.

I had to read the other 16 reviews here before posting my own to see how my view of the film - which I just finished watching - compare to the others and ... Here are my thoughtsThe child actor with a long blond hair that is reminiscent of Renoir's Coco portraits is brilliant. great acting for a 8,9 year old - or whatever his age is.All other actors are really good too and they do convey the feeling it is 1918. I don't know where is this big old house - but somehow it does not fit into France. I would more think about the Balkans. But it is just a thought.Were they really people with black hoods and capes and all at funerals at that time? It is a rather strange and completely unnecessary scene in the film, though kinda effective.I really liked the mood of the film and I can appreciate the art vision of it. However, the film is too long and most of the time boring. I love French and I was forcing myself to make that as a plus point, but...The best thing about this film is music!But somehow its dramatic score and almost banging at the window tone is totally opposite to the calm and slow narative. That music would be better for horror films. All in all, I would not really recommend this film to anyone as I think it is too boring. And plus the ending totally makes no sense to me.

2.5 of 10. Rounded down instead of up. Given that there's a desperate need for more documentaries or even portrayals of fascism as it happened historically, the 1 remarkable thing about this film is that it completely fails to capture any unique element of fascism or fascists.As a film on the spoiled brats of leaders in general, it's not bad. Not original and not insightful either. It's more like the writer and director threw a tantrum together.It's not the worst possible rating essentially because the acting and music are entertaining enough to keep the film from causing your head from bouncing off the floor, but that's about it.