Standing Tall (2015)
7/10
Harrowing and moving
20 May 2019
This film follows the journey, during a dozen years, of two people: Malony Ferrandot, a child who is definitely not born with a silver spoon in his mouth, and Florence Blaque, a judge for juveniles, as firm as surprisingly empathetic. This film gives us the impression of being in a zoo, watching wild animals loosely left to themselves, with an inadequate security fence: at the slightest hitch, it's going down the crapper!

Around these two main characters, gravitate 1) Séverine, an immature and completely out of one's depth mother, 2) Yann, an educator certainly fragile but fundamentally benevolent and playing the role of a substitute father, and 3) Tess who is somehow a detonator in the life of Malony and makes him want to live as a mellowed man rather than survive like a wild animal.

These five characters are certainly caricatured and / or not very credible. Thus, Séverine, the mother, is a practical joke; Florence, the judge, is exceedingly benevolent and I sincerely doubt that this is so in the real life; Tess surprisingly falls in love with a teen as antisocial as loathsome; Malony is a tie-in product from the famous video game Grand Theft Auto Vice City. But, behind these five characters, there are five awesome actors illuminating this beautiful movie.
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