Teenage drama is a distinct genre in cinema, especially when made by European producers. This picture came to us from Belgium. This film reminds me a lot of the movie "Class", which is also, by the way, European, but a little further north, from Estonia. There, too, everyone mocked one person who, although not sick, could not show himself as a full-fledged personality and because of this, everyone mocked him. Little, but similar, in this movie. Ben goes to school, and after class, someone pulls his pants off, and they film it. Naturally, he is furious, hitting the windows. And so on. As in any teenage drama, there are “villains”, in this case, two typical bullies who are the instigators of mocking poor Ben. But that's just one of his worlds. The other is the beautiful world in the game. There he can do anything, he's a hero, and when he has to step out of the game into the real world, he goes to the mirror and thinks, "Why is this all?" This is really brilliant.
All the films I sort of divide into three groups. The first is the pop movies, which cut a huge box office around the world, but which, for the most part, are absolutely nothing special. The second group is the festival film. Always heavy, having a large semantic load, which for most viewers is not understood. And the third group is all the other films. They stand in the middle between the first two groups. Often they get all sorts of Oscars and so on. This film, I would take with great stretch to the second group. Still, there is a certain semantic load here, and the film, one hundred percent, is not mass. I used to be a player myself. Of course not as avid as Ben. I have never hated MMORPGs. I didn't like games without genre. But it's not just that. Any game can be addictive. Or maybe there's no disease. Maybe Ben just invented everything, or just for him there is no line between the real world and the world of ArchLord, and what kind of world he considers real for himself. Perhaps where he feels good... By the way, I really liked the moments when, for example, Ben is walking down the street, and in order to get a phone, for example, the corresponding icon appears in the upper left corner, the mouse cursor clicks on the phone, and he pulls it out of his pocket, and this applies to everything. Very well designed.
What does Balthazar have to say with this film? That all games are evil, or that games are played only by people who do not see themselves in the real world, who seek salvation in video games? Perhaps, but I still think that games are a minor character in the film (although they take up half the screen time), and the main theme is still violence in society.
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