So far at the head of a fine filmography, Pierre Salvadori (In the court) disappoints this time with The Little Band which comes out Wednesday, July 20. An ecological tale where five children kidnap a factory manager to protect their river. We hardly believe it.
Aimé, 12, is the whipping boy at his school. His dream: to be part of a gang. Other students, Cat, Fouad, Antoine and Sami, want to blow up the chemical factory which is polluting “their” river. They invite Aimé to join them. After a disaster, he suggests kidnapping the manager of the business.
Pierre Salvadori intertwines initiation and ecology in a tale which, if it seduces, misses its subject. A child wants to make friends. Aimé is ready to do anything for this, even blowing up a factory or kidnapping his boss. Why not ? The shoe pinches in the story: we don’t believe it. If the situation is attractive, its realization is less so.
Initiatory tale told by Aimé, The Little Band loses its narrator in favor of the incredible adventure of the five children, and abandons its subject. Let’s not talk about the ecological, formal theme. Even if it is sincere, it also recovers the environmental sensitivity of young audiences and parents. The radical, terrorist method employed (attack, kidnapping), in the tone of Club of Five, is not credible. How does Aimé know the history of the band from the inside without being part of it? How is the hostage supplied over several weeks?
What would have made the story more realistic is diluted in poorly argued palavers around Aimé’s reliability. And the denouement is weak, the film ends like a dream. The little band is the film made by Aimé. But for it to take, you have to make people believe in an implausible situation, whether it’s a dream, a tale, or a film. Pierre Salvadori runs after too many hares at once, and loses the spectator in the process.
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Gender : Comedy
Director :Pierre Salvadori
Actors : Paul Belhoste, Laurent Capelluto, Mathys Clodion-Gines, Laurent Capelutto, Aymé Medeville, Colombe Schmitdt, Rewan Salam
Country : France
Duration : 1h46
Exit : July 6, 2022
Distributer : Gaumont
Synopsis : The little gang is Cat, Fouad, Antoine and Sami, four 12-year-old schoolboys. Out of pride and provocation, they embark on a crazy project: to blow up the factory that has been polluting their river for years. But in the freshly formed group, disagreements are frequent and tie votes constantly paralyze the action. To decide between themselves, they then decide to bring Aimé, a rejected and lonely kid, into their little band. As excited as they are maddened by the magnitude of their mission, the five accomplices will learn to live and fight together in this funny and uncertain adventure that will totally surpass them.