A large collective of high school dickbags decide to single out one of the quiet, reserved kids whom they deem a "freak" and make each school day a hell on Earth for him. One of the lead bully's pals begins feeling his conscience getting the better of him and goes against the pack in order to protect the helpless victim. This basically causes a war between a classroom of sadistic tormenters and the two oppressed outcasts.
Maybe this kinda thing goes on in Estonian schools in the name of Euro-trash "honor", but the extent of the cruelty depicted here didn't seem very believable. At the beginning it states that the film is based on "true stories", so maybe it's just an assemblage of true bullying tactics strung together and inflicted upon just two characters for the sake of creating one of the most grueling high school experiences ever captured on celluloid. Then again, who HASN'T been held at knife-point and forced to blow their friend in front of a unified body of snickering peers? I dunno, it just seemed a little 'much', but when vengeance is delivered, it's definitely warranted. Perhaps the whole point of "The Class" was to completely justify school shootings. If that be the case, than they succeeded in making the most recrementitious and indulgent movie about adolescent bullying and retaliation. Not to say it's BAD, cuz it's certainly not. Like I said, it's shot nicely and well acted. However, I'd recommend Gus Van Sant's "Elephant" or "Zero Day" if you're looking for better films on the topic of school shootings which is, primarily, an American problem and I don't feel the Estonians captured it all that accurately.
No comments:
Post a Comment