It's kind of like Death Note, if Death Note had nothing poignant or remotely interesting to say about the morality of its own concept.
There's thinly veiled commentary about smartphones that fails to relate to the film's narrative in any significant way. It's odd that it is so insistent on this while telling a story that could have been told entirely without them.
The abundant narration is not only distracting, but conveys the exact same information as the images, meaning…
The sort of film you appreciate more and more the longer you dwell on it. Truffaut paints a bleak portrait of youth; its wonder, recklessness, its uncertainties. The latter being perhaps the most relevant in terms of its ending. A beautifully shot sequence where a boy runs away towards nothing. His future unknown, begging the question of "what now?" as he turns to look directly into the camera lens, seeming to turn to the viewer out of pure desperation. It's haunting. The final frame will stay with me for a long time.
The film is certainly an impressive display of stop motion and has its creative moments with it. Unfortunately, the rest is rather standard.
The separation into three chapters is to the film's detriment, especially its pacing which makes what should be big climactic moments rather unremarkable. It would have felt more of a complete tale if its concepts had been amalgamated into one concise narrative, but the chapters have no connection or red thread between them except being in the…
