Les garçons sauvages (2017) Reviews

• Weird, yet intriguing till the end (and thought-provoking)

  wimpers2017-11-14

  It's sort of avant-garde fantasy with moral layers. Weird film, but intriguing till the end. Then I grasped how convincing it really is into its being truly thought-provoking. An open mind is a necessity (plus it's french, lol). Several artistic references are there for who can recognize them. I feel the black&white scenes really add to the story. The island seems amazing. The cast and directing are excellent! Certain scenes stay with you quite some time. Oh, and there is a fake ending and a little extra for who sits till after the end titles.

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• Grooming young boys is not entertainment

  malcolja2019-03-15

  There was a whole lot of stuff I didn't expect. I left at the hour twenty mark, but really I had enough of the woman-hating references ( the rape scene, the island smells likes oysters mentioned at least 3 times etc,) plus the gratuitous grooming of the boys first used to explain the rape of a teacher and then used to explain why they were all strangely attracted to an older man (The Captain) who ties them up in a style reminiscent of Anne Rance's the Beauty Chronicles (shudder). And they are forced to beg for sustenance from a penis shaped tree which squirts into their mouths Puh-lease. Maybe I'm.not the target audience because I like my partners adult and consensual, but in a #Metoo age I find it astounding that people thought this film aligned with modern expectations.

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• A fantasizing, interesting and unique experience.

  JSVoid2018-10-13

  This is a beautiful film, which explores sexuality, gender and beauty in strange things. The whole film is presented in such a visually pleasing way, and offers a new experience of cinema, with the vibrant colours, and the adventurously experimental characters and interactions.

• Avant garde and not for all

  hobbittall2018-12-31

  "The Wild Boys" (Les Garcons Sauvages) is an entirely original film and plays out like an expansive moody metaphor with superb acting, tight and well-crafted script, an original mix of production techniques, excellent photography and sound, and sensitive insightful direction. It will especially appeal to those with an interest in homoerotica and/or class-gender sociology. To say any more would be to spoil it. This is a movie that has stayed with me long after the viewing. Fortunately for me, I knew nothing of the 'twist' towards the end and was able to put together the pieces myself.

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• Dreamy transgender (castration complex!) mystery island oddity!

  Bofsensai2019-05-06

  Seen as part of the local 'Erotica' festival, this sorely tested patience; yet is still worth seeking out for some interest and oddities - not least as a visual metaphor for what several feminist film critics* have assessed (accused!) the cinematic medium to be all about the male gaze ("woman as image; man as bearer of the look"*) and its updating of Freud's male 'castration anxiety' complex! I'll note no more so as to not plot spoil, but the initial conceit here (don't read the synopsis etc.!) is rendered well in the actors' portrayals, main protagonist Vimila Pons especially, through to its feminist / transgender / castration denouement (á la 'Moebius' etc!) The problem is, as transgender photogenic as the players here are, cinematically little occurs, and is rather more theatrical, at least up until our 'crew' arrive at a luscious, sensual (living?) island: this is of interest as it was filmed on the French owned island paradise of Reunion (in the Indian Ocean), but although using its famous five(+) Cascade de Langevin waterfalls location as a back (projection?) lot, most action otherwise takes place on the beach, which with Reunion being a volcanic island, is even more impressive as the crewmates variously cavort on its volcanic black sand, since such could surely only have been filmed in very short time spans (e.g. just after sun up? Since, located almost at the equator, sunset takes just a matter of minutes); as otherwise that type of beach grain absorbs the sun to make it scaldingly ergo untouchably, hot very soon: it's also very scratchy, bitty! So again, kudos to the actors there. To the story: well, the luscious, sensual island with a miraculous, liberating - or fearfully emasculating, depending on your take on sexual identity! - is the conundrum to enthral you into seeing this rather dreamy (dreary? No, perish) concoction through to its end. Even if I hadn't known the casting conceit at the beginning (don't read the synopses!) it truthfully, would have had me a little uncertain for awhile as the characters are introduced, but as soon as you're in the know, what's impressive, too, is that you can still believe they are what they purport to be, almost throughout (so good acting in that respect), to again, that lead 'actor' in particular, really right to 'their' very end. If dreaminess, discursive transgender identity polemics is your thing - this is ideal: otherwise, self-indulgent meanderings. *Freud's theories by way of Karen Hornley ('Feminine Psychology'), Laura Mulvey ('Visual Pleasures and the Narrative Cinema') and Barbara Creed ('Monstrous Feminine: Film, feminism and psychoanalysis'.) If you liked this film, check 'em out.

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