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Rating: ***
Genre: Psychic Schoolgirls MPAA: YRV(I think it should be either PG-13 or R) Review #: 7 Hebrew with English Subtitles Cast: Directed by...Ari Folman Directed by...Ori Sivan Vered Rosental...Ronny Bachar Tikel's Mom...Tal Ben-Bina Elvis...Israel Damidov Eleanor Galash...Maya De-Fries Clara's Mom...Jenia Doudina Clara...Lucy Dubinchik Teacher Mounitz...Joe El Dror Tikel...Halil Elohev Galit Biron...Tal Feigenboim Clara's Dad...Ronald Hilovsky Libby...Maya Mayron Headmaster Tissona...Yigal Naor Tikel's Dad...Menashe Noy Asthma...Tomer Patlock Rosy...Johnny Peterson TV Reporter...Orly Silbersatz Banai Baby Chanov...Divan Sivan Seismographic Engineer...Helena Zo-Btov |
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Review:
Here's one strange movie. I don't know what to make of it! Here's what it's about: One day, In an Israeli math class full of misfits, immigrants and pill-popping punks, the entire class manages to somehow ace a test, which the teacher knows is impossible for such a hopeless bunch of slackers. The administration makes an inquisition, and finds out that the test answers were provided beforehand by a new girl from Russia, named Clara, who's got big violet eyes and a precognitive ability. |
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| When the headmaster goes to talk to her parents, they seem very passive about it. Clara's Mom claims that it's the same ability that she had when she was young, and it will go away when Clara falls in love. Clara's Uncle, named Elvis (who is cleaning a very big gun though out the entire scene), also had a similar ability, which they attribute to the fact that they lived in near a radioactive zone in Russia. All of the anarchistic bullys in her school dream of using her precognicience in order to start a revolution, and the principal wants the same thing. Clara seems to prefer using her abilities to help everyone, like giving everyone the test questions, or when she gives the winning lottery ticket numbers to everyone in town. Clara eventually predicts a minor earthquake, but by that time, when Clara talks, everyone listens. |
| What really makes this movie are the characters. All of the adults are portrayed as strange and out of touch. The Math teacher claims that during his tour in Vietnam, Bobby Fisher personnally chose him to join the US Army Chess Team, and the principal says the Edith Piaf wrote a song about him after they spent the night together. Worst of all is the TV reporter with the crazy hair, who always reports on doom and gloom, ending every story with "And your children will wear little orange raincoats". When a movie has this many screwballs, it has to have a plot to match. There are still some scenes which I just don't understand, like the one where the burning bird crashes through the window of the school. See it and you'll understand, or rather, you wont understand. |
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| It's a well done and very original movie, and original is a good thing. I've heard it called a comedy, but it's more of a cynical-black-comedy-apocalyptic-romance. Clara tries to find love among the boys in her class, even though she knows that it will mean the end of her gift. The final verdict: a movie that has to be seen to believed. Scratch that, it has to be experienced. I'd love to see it again, so that I might understand some of those really out there scenes. It might not be everyone's cup of tea, but you should really give it a try. How else are you going to learn? And at least it will give you a new appreciation of subtitled movies, and show you that foreign films can be much more original than our domestic blockbusters. | Back to the Movie section! |
