Film: Guidelines / La marche à suivre (2014)
Film: Very Good
Transfer: n/a Extras: n/a
Label: n/a
Region: n/a
Released: n/a
Genre: Documentary / Hot Docs 2014
Synopsis: Visually staid yet engrossing snapshot of high school kids learning cornerstones of adult behaviour.
Special Features: n/a
Review:
Director Jean-Francois Caissy’s portrait of students at a rural high school in Quebec captures the awkwardness and attitude of unruly teens as they accept and adapt to the school’s behaviour code. The tough discipline from prior eras has been replaced with lengthy progress meetings between the unruly, the tormented, and their teachers, hashing out grievance with all key figures, and problem students signing good behaviour contracts to remain in school.
Caissy contrasts these interventions with outdoor vignettes of classic afterschool messing around, including reckless driving, bridge diving, and roving up and around an impromptu ATV range, and by keeping the camera locked on the teens at all times, he reveals the weird classroom ennui, moral indifference in tormentors, and methods of simple amusements before grades, graduation, and a need to focus on a career become priorities after graduation. Guidelines is an intriguing and often amusing portrait of nascent minds ‘waking up’ on-camera to adult concepts of responsibility and tolerance, and maybe learning a better poker face when you’re trapped.
© 2014 Mark R. Hasan
External References:
IMDB — Hot Docs 2014 Listing
Vendor Search Links:
Amazon.ca
Category: Blu-ray / DVD Film Review
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