All France is calling _Amanda_ the film of the year, when actually it's just a series of clichés strung together like fake pearls.

Yet one more film (think _About A Boy_, _Big Daddy_, _Gifted_...) about a young man forced to grow up quickly, and take care of a child after a tragedy. Sadly, French wunderkind Vincent Lacoste has never been cuter but is out of his league here as the brother who has to fill his sister's pants after her sudden death. The film is meant to be a tear jerker, but his unconvincing performance and cringe-worthy crying made me cry from pain and not sadness.

[spoiler] I'm also a little offended at the way the sister dies. After the Charlie Hebdo office shootings and the massacre at the Bataclan, choosing a mass terrorist shooting in a park made me feel like I was being held emotionally hostage. 'If you don't appreciate our film, it means the terrorists win,' is too facile a premise for a film that doesn't work to justify it. [/spoiler]

A gentle, albeit very pedestrian drama about the importance of family during times of tragedy

Written by Mikhaël Hers and Maud Ameline and directed by Hers, Amanda is a tender and gentle study of the importance of family in the wake of tragedy. Heartfelt and sincere, it shuns traditional filmic methods of eliciting emotion, instead presenting its story in a cinéma vérité style as a series of semi-connected moments taking place over several months, rather than a tightly focused narrative with forward momentum and rising pathos. The pacing certainly won't be for everyone, nor will the absence of much in the way of psychological nuance, and the manner of the presentation does occasionally cross the line from passive observation into inconsequentiality. However, one certainly can't deny Hers's candidness and compassion.

For my complete review, please visit: https://boxd.it/W9oNV