There are many scenes within Les Pires, or The Worst Ones that I hope stick with me. I’d expect this kind of reaction from anyone while experiencing a film about a messy production of a Belgian slash French ‘neorealist’ film about children. There are times when it pulls out of that mess and capture children growing up. A young first time actors ( Timéo Mahaut) deal with adults in their lives who may or may not be stage relatives. Some of the teenagers  (including Mallory Wanecque) in the cast have crushes on some of the crew and we as adults can figure out a few ways that can go. Then we return to the production where the director gets something right accidentally, getting his actors to cooperate.

The satire here works and is more subtle than its most mainstream French language counterparts. It breaks rules and depicts things I normally dislike in other movies but make them work. Characters can turn on a dime without making them inconsistent. Even some of the symbolism that feels much come off in an opposite way, like when one of the teen actors, Lily (Wanecque), orders ice cream at a bar just to show that she is a child around adults who should know how to deal with teenagers but don’t. In that scene, Lily tells the director about a lesbian acquaintance, and scenes like that show that these teens don’t know everything but thankfully, they have a screenplay that doesn’t condescend to them.