Afterschool

Early twentysomething writer/director Antonio Campos makes a startlingly assured directorial debut with AFTERSCHOOL. Set in an exclusive Northeastern prep school, the film follows Robert (Ezra Miller), a confused youngster who spends most of his time watching videos on the Internet. Some of these are harmless, but some are much more troubling, including pornography and actual fights that have been captured on various consumer-grade video cameras. Robert himself doesn't appear to have violent desires, yet when he gets his hands on a video camera for a class project and starts becoming closer to fellow classmate Amy (Addison Timlin), he experiences feelings he has previously only encountered on a computer screen. During the filming of a class project, Robert unwittingly captures the overdose of two of the school's most popular girls--twins, no less--sending him into an introverted, despondent tailspin. Campos's film owes an obvious debt to the work of German provocateur Michael Haneke, and not only in its controversial subject matter. More directly, it's in Campos's ability to create a palpable sense of tension with the camera. Credit must be given here to cinematographer Jody Lee Lipes (WILD COMBINATION: A PORTRAIT OF ARTHUR RUSSELL), who uses a slowly roaming camera when necessary, but otherwise maintains a static, off-kilter frame, hinting at the dangers that lurk just beyond every corner. AFTERSCHOOL speaks volumes about the influence of the Internet and technology on our nation's impressionable youth.

Cast:

3 stars out of 5 -- "Gripped with an unnerving iciness, AFTERSCHOOL has style and smarts..." -- Jonathan Crocker , (Total Film)

3 stars out of 5 -- "Campos creates an interesting sense of dramatic distance..." , (Box Office)

"Campos captures the numbing psychic scramble that might just cause the YouTube generation to go morally haywire." -- Grade: B+ -- Lisa Schwarzbaum , (Entertainment Weekly)

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