A film by Muriel d’Ansembourg
With: Caolán O’Gorman, Andrew Howard, Safiya Benaddi, Alessa Savage, Lyndsey Marshal, Juliet Aubrey, Cameron King, Hana Hrzic, Kate Kennedy, Helena Braithwaite
An introverted teen Alec, who has only ever experienced sex through the lens while working for his father’s pornography business, must step out from behind the camera when a feisty classmate challenges him to embrace a real connection.
Our rate : ★★
A relatively rare subject and an interesting angle for a film that is halfway between a coming-of-age romantic comedy, an English-style social drama, and a societal documentary—three films in one, treated with sincerity and psychological insight. Proportionally speaking, we are somewhat at the crossroads between Todd Solondz, Ken Loach, and Coralie Trin-Hi or Ovidie. Here, scandal serves as a backdrop, a milieu, a differentiating character, a social marker. Alec’s social misery stems from his status as a redneck, like his toxic but well-meaning father, who has only ever known the porn industry as a way to earn a living, in which he is sinking and to which he clings. Alec, his son, is much more respectful, tender, and sensitive by nature. Even though it would never occur to him to morally condemn his father’s actions, he accepts them with a certain fatalism, but also with a degree of innocence. This portrait of a confused young man, left to his own devices, is painted by Muriel d’Ansembourg, and to bring it out more clearly and blur the lines, she draws her young man into a simple and sincere love story, the stuff of romantic comedy. The film maintains a sense of mystery, a balance between its two seemingly antagonistic components. Will Alec, walking on a tightrope, take young Nina with him, who also longs to escape or break free from her family environment? Two broken hearts, two teenagers on the margins and poorly integrated at school, very attracted to each other, who support and understand each other and aspire to live their story to the fullest. From this simple and effective narrative thread, however, emerges the social, even documentary dimension surrounding the pornographic milieu, in the manner of Virginie Despentes, for example, with a sincere gaze. The father’s good qualities are highlighted, and the camera is not only there to convey a message, in this case a rather critical one about the father’s actions, but also to capture what goes on behind the scenes, showing a father who, despite everything, educates his son according to his own codes, moves forward with him as he would with his friends in life, fighting with him against social adversity, seeking to escape poverty by any means necessary. In this respect, beyond a few raw (and sometimes funny) scenes that are slightly provocative and critical of the father’s profession, the film also tells us something about our times more broadly, where in order to survive and earn money, everyone is increasingly left to their own devices and increasingly isolated. To get by, Alec will necessarily have to break free from his father and find his own way in the face of social adversity, since he has no support.