Falcon Lake

Charlotte Le Bon has created something great here. Of the many good coming-of-age films set in French Canada, this is my favourite. One of the main reasons for this is the two young lead actors. Sara Montpetit has already been praised many times, and rightly so. But Joseph Engel is simply brilliant in his role. He is a being who is exactly halfway between childhood and the adult world, and he portrays this completely naturally and convincingly. The two are ideally cast for the roles of Bas and Chloé. Add to that the multitude of small, lovingly observed scenes, the appropriately slow pace, the enchanting landscape shots and, in particular, the unforgettable, almost hypnotic music. The film will stay with you for a long time. The ending has been criticized a lot. It is indeed not easy. But you may be able to make peace with it if you watch the film a second or even a third time: it had to happen the way it did.

Frankly I don't understand the low ratings of this little gem. The film is very engaging, romantic and realistic. I perfectly identified with the boy's character, his behaviors and his mistakes. Masterfully interpreted by the two protagonists, the film makes you think, dream and suffer. It doesn't have any nuances out of place, it doesn't have absurd exaggerations typical of certain productions, it has beautiful photography and simple ideas. The girl has a magnetic character, the boy perfectly expresses the fears and discomforts of his age. I loved this movie and I strongly reccomend it to a wide range of viewers.

I thought this may have been supernatural but unfortunately it's just the usual coming-of-age nonsense, which in modern terms means drugs, decadence alcohol, and puking. Because according to Movieland that's all the youth does. There's no fantasy here. Certainly not in the first 90 minutes. Actually no, there is fantasy here. Male fantasy. Not the kind involving a young teenage girl madly in love with a fat, bald, ugly, middle-aged man. No, that is a common French trope, but not here, this is a Canadian film. This is the male fantasy not from the point of view of a middle-aged man, but from the point of view of boy. A 13 year-old boy is seduced by a 16 year old girl. This only happens in movies. How many 16 year-old girls have you come across that prefer three years younger as opposed to three years older? None, exactly. They may go out with a 15 year old guy, but even that is not so common. In fact, though I have no concrete evidence to support this claim, I believe that there is a bigger chance that you find a ghost in Quebec then a good-looking 16 year-old girl who is willing to go out with a 13 year-old dweeb. She's practically a woman, he's just a kid. The fact that girls physically mature earlier than boys is just one of several reasons for this. Admittedly, she more-or-less only toys with him. She's forced to share rooms for a certain period of time, so she makes him her orbiter. This is a practice commonly used by the human female of various ages, usually by the attractive ones and ones that enjoy exercising their power that way. The * scene was absolutely ridiculous. I mean the first * scene, because there are two. Because how can we have a coming-of-age drama without coming? Not in this era. The hairlipped older guy asking the boy whether he did it with Chloe was an unconvincing scene, because why would an 18 or 19 year-old ask a 13 year old whether he did it with a 16 year-old girl. That kind of nonsense wouldn't even occur to anyone, because it's so unlikely. This was only added as a plot-device so that the two would have a fight, leading to his demise. The conclusion is rushed, superficial, and unconvincing. The female lead is very good, but the rest of the cast are hopelessly bland and dull.

Do yourself a favor, stop right there, go watch it and then read the review. I didn't went into this film looking for an horror movie, but the ending is the scariest I've felt in a long time and I say that as someone who mostly and compulsively watch horror movies, good, bad, all the subgenres, it's my one and only passion. This movie is beautiful, it made me laughed and cried, it's unnerving and heartfelt. I had no expectation, and I've been serve with a rare delight. I'm actually from Quebec and I can say, it's the first time a movie from here scares me like that. Chapeau bas aux auteurs et surtout à la réalisatrice! I hope she plans to direct more like this.

I just finished watching the 2022 film Falcon Lake. I didn't know until I entered the data on IMDb that it was actually adapted from Bastien Vivès' semi-autobiographical graphic novel Une sour. The atmosphere of the film already hinted at this, and learning this made everything fall into place. First of all, Falcon Lake is a film with so many subtexts that we can't call it an ordinary coming-of-age drama. While it has a narrative from the French school, it doesn't get too caught up in art-house storytelling and also appeals to the general audience. Canadian director Charlotte Le Bon got on my radar with this film, but the real highlight of the film is French child actor Joseph Engel, who won the Canadian Screen Award for Best Lead Performance in a Film for his role. Engel carries the whole film and proves his talent to the audience in every frame he appears in. Overall, Falcon Lake is a well-made film with a strong performance by Joseph Engel. It's a coming-of-age story with a lot to offer, and it's sure to stay with you long after you watch it.

Falcon Lake is an interesting directorial debut that explores a boy's experience of first love on a summer holiday. The story is very atmospheric, taking place around a mysterious lake. The young boy, only 13, arrives with his family and meets a 16-year-old girl, with whom he falls in love. This is a rites of passage story with all the usual events, such as drinking alcohol, taking drugs, and falling in love for the first time. The young actors give strong performances, open and honest in their emotional vulterability. The director makes wise choices, such as staying with the children and leaving adult actions in the background or slightly off screen. This is an engrossing, charming, slightly disturbing film. The only minus point is the ending, which opts for ambiguity when a more plausible and realistic ending would have had more emotional punch. Well worth seeing.

An uneasy emotional journey, with amazing performances by the young actors. First film from the director, who brings a spooky sense of unease to the entire story, taking a "coming-of-age" tale and infusing it with the ever-threatening darkness hinted at by a classical fairy tale. It's aided with deeply evocative cinematography and a musical score that effectively reflects the confused emotions of the two leads, echoing the uncertainty of two characters approaching the unfamiliar and uncharted waters of adulthood. It's a big scary world out there, almost as scary as the world of your own churning emotions inside, as the score keeps reminding you. While its the slowest of slow-burns, it is incredibly affecting, and well worth any thoughtful viewer's time.

"Falcon Lake" is the debutfilm of Charlotte Le Bon as director and got 5 stars out of 5 in my newspaper (a rating they don't give often). Combined with the fact that the film promised a combination of coming of age and horror I categorized this movie as a "must see". I hoped for a film similar to the ones Lucile Hadzihalilovic makes them, such as "Innocence" (2004) and "Evolution" (2015), but only in a few moments "Falcon lake" matches the mysterious atmosphere of these films. "Falcon lake" is about a 13 year old boy falling in love with a 16 year old girl, which in her turn is fond of a 19 years old boy. Both the boy and the girl are thus aiming for someone with more sexual experience and occasionaly have to compensate their lack of experience with bluff, in which the girl is better than the boy. The problem of the movie is not the "coming of age" element, it is the "horror element". According to the already mentioned review in my newspaper the director had the intention that: "Horror should not be an accessory, but play a key role in this story about two adolescents.". She did not realise this intention. The in between shots of a deserted lake with threatening storm clouds overhead are exactly what she wants to avoid: a mere accessory. The "Sixth sense" (1999, M. Night Shyamalan) type of an ending does not compensate for this flaw.

So we follow that young boy and girl. We saw them experiment and do parties and have fun. They discover also their bodies, their sexualities each other and i found some dialogues and scenes pretty interesting with that sexuality that they need to discover by their own. So we saw a lot of funny moments and some interesting "mise en scene" and that kind of movie can really help some young people and we feel very close with the two characters in their fears, the changement in their bodies, the start of their sexuality. It was a nice discovery and i really enjoyed also the ghost part who add a little bit scare or mysterious moments. A nice movie that can i recommend to everyone. Anybody can relate to the teenagers problems in that movie.

This is obviously based on first hand experience. Without spoiling anything, the basic setup is, as stated in the official storyline, that there is a 13-year-old boy (going on 14), who bonds with a 16-year-old girl. The age difference is almost just 2 years, but we can imagine the difference in their maturity - and we will be right. The male audience already knows where such a setup can lead for a 14-year-old boy: both Heaven and Hell. And usually it leads to both - almost without exception. So it is a really hard watch for any male who has not completely forgotten his early teen years. Pure art here.