Red Queen
Afterschool is an ingenious voyeur's study on voyeurism. Kids today devour video toxic waste unguided and with no way to digest the daily dose of random clips that are void of any meaning or purpose, but are still irresistibly taboo.With its overstimulated emotional shut down and pathetic sentiment throughout, the film is confusing and has no cohesive story, all by design. The amateur documentary effects suck. And are also intentional. Afterschool does make a statement. With multi-dimensional accuracy.But as much as I admire its genius, I didn't like watching this movie. I would only recommend it to parenting intellectuals.
Hot Potato
This film scares me. Not that there is anything scary in the film, it is far too boring and slow to be scary. It's pace leaves you wondering who is retarded.It is about two bored uninspired, possibly demented high-school underclass students making a documentary. The film is shot as if it is also their documentary, and it's overall quality reflects this. Maybe this is the films only achievement to me. Not the quality of the filming but the overall quality.Now what scares me? That some people found a level of inspiration or quality to rate it so highly, my three is a sympathy vote.My recommendation?, unless you are really into slow, boring, weird stuff, look further.
dan-800
"...but I can safely say that's probably the worst thing I've ever seen. You didn't even have music!"Well, I AM an editor, and I couldn't agree more about this whole mess. Honestly, they really should teach film school kids not to sum up their worst critiques by themselves, and then stop them when they want to put said review in their s*****y film, making sure to underline it in case we forgot.It boggles my mind how smart, sensitive people who claim to love cinema can love (I mean really love, not just begrudgingly respect) Stanley Kubrick. But to start orally fellating a 24 year-old kid who is so overtly ripping off an overused - and frankly highly questionable - aesthetic to no apparent end, is really beyond me."Afterschool" takes a brilliant title and (unfortunately) a barely engaging or interesting concept (at best), and then goes to great pains to make you not care. "We're all becoming more and more disconnected from each other, our feelings, and our humanity in this new digital age." No f***ing s**t, Sherlock. Fortune cookies have more insight.Campos obviously loves what he's doing (and by that I mean he loves pointing out that life is a hollow, static, arid, poorly-framed affair). And while I applaud a filmmaker who cares more about a visual experience than he does a (in this case almost non-existent) script (what with that terribly embarrassing thesis and all), any artist still has to maintain a modicum of humanity - especially when he's decrying the zeitgeist for lacking the very same. Not to mention that most of the visuals in this piece have (it's been pointed out) been done many times before, by people far more with-it.This dreary, pedantic tripe needs to be ridiculed, for Campos' sake, if not for our own. For shame.
teg5037
Critics who have been comparing Campos to Kubrick and Van Sant must owe him a favor.This film was not the worst movie I have ever seen,it just could of been so much better. I did not mind the slow pace. I did not mind any of the acting,it just didn't deliver with the story. I thought this movie was building up to some climax that I wouldn't see coming: *SPOILER* it doesn't. *SPOILER* Sure, it showed him possibly choking out one of the twins, but I had more expectations that. *SPOILER* Why didn't he rat out his douche bag roommate for possibly supplying the drugs, or why didn't he rat out the school after the counselor told him that the school knew the twins were drug fiends and had problems. Also, *SPOILER* the memorial video he made was stupid. It really was. I thought it would of been better if he exposed the twins as druggies and somehow managed to pile in information to show that the school knew and didn't do anything about it. Instead, it was a horrible clip of people staring, almost like he was stalking them . Like I said before, I didn't mind the slow pace, but Jesus, it's gotta build to something. Some positives about this film were how they showed the curiosity of teenagers and sex, how Campos took a modern direction with twisted teens in today's society and technology, and how awkward it can be to live with a roommate you hate.Ill finish off with saying this: If you find yourself halfway through this movie and you are not enjoying it, do yourself a favor and turn it off...you won't miss anything.
AD
