Renée Wilson

One star for the cinematography - some lovely camera work and lighting. One star for the acting - 30% for the adults and 70% for the kids. This script is a frustrating experience to witness play out. No one behaves like a real human. They have conversations about the wrong things at the worst times, and don’t say what they should say when they do speak or have opportunities to do so. There’s no through-line for the plot; it meandered from one point to the next with only the barest of connection and with zero conclusions to both the actual plot and the larger moral questions about honesty and open communication. On a separate note: 1. Watching these 11/12/13 year olds be manipulated and coerced by adults who are supposed to be their thought leaders was deeply uncomfortable to witness. If that was the writers intent, it succeeded, but I hope there are no adults either in the writers room or in the audience who feel this is an acceptable way to speak to and treat children. Coercing them and manipulating them using emotional and moral beats they have no capacity to notice or even understand, and then powering that move with your authority as a teacher, is not okay. 2. There’s no such thing as an adult in 2023 who would imagine for even a second that removing the school newspaper’s article from their website would somehow stop it from existing on the internet, or who would not see that removing it at all would just exacerbate every single issue the article’s existence causes and the other problems it points out. It’s just sloppy writing. If they were going for “adults who make the wrong moves when faced with pressure”, they completely overshot their goal. A frustrating movie to slog through. The score was repetitive and exhausting, the plot meanders with no coherent through-line or end goal, and I cannot stress enough how not a single person in this entire film behaves like a real human. The only glimpses of actual humans in this movie were the unscripted moments where the kids were just acting like kids. A disappointing experience, overall.