Polytechnique

A life story horror narrated from the point of view of murderer, witness and survivor. Montreal 1989, a surly student who hates injustice hidden within feminism, a gun and a technical school full of promising girls… Villeneuve, coarse as a cheese grater, realizes that it is we alone who have to find the meaning of life to avoid going crazy. Formally perfect, a powerful story, although a bit superficial. (02.01.2018)

Villeneuve went literally crazy with this sad story from Canadian history. Not only did he play with a black-and-white filter but on top of that, he managed to pack so much emotion into a 70-minute movie that even though I wasn’t familiar with the characters, I was emotionally drained in the end. And that’s even though I had a feeling about what was going to happen. At the same time, I was trying to understand what was in the attacker’s head and I didn’t. So, in the end, a depressive mediocrity for three shotguns. I do not recommend watching it before bed. (20.02.2018)

Denis Villeneuve films tragic events with sensibility and humility. The result is impressive, to say the least. (20.06.2018)

Polytechnic's artfully induced depression and sense of helplessness cannot be denied, as well as the very peculiar formal games with the environment, the camera angles and the changing subjective perspective of the three protagonists: the killer, the female victim and the male witness. Villeneuve attempts to achieve a more personal approach and a greater emotional response, but he is not very successful in the established formal scale, where the act of violence enters the scene unexpectedly early and the style focuses on bringing more dynamism to the plot by overlapping the most dramatic events, rather than connecting more closely with the victims (the most suspenseful sequences are those that use handheld shots, but unfortunately there are too few of them). And while the connection to the psyche of the killer in the opening works quite well, the female protagonist is uninteresting and the ending didn't really grab me (and the male villain is oddly off-putting). In any case, it shows Dennis' directorial talents and is definitely a good exposure to his work for his avid fans. (28.09.2018)