La Tête haute

Le jeune homme joue très bien, il est le fil conducteur fonctionnel de l'histoire. Mais à quoi cela sert-il ? Jusqu'à la fin, le film cesse d'être une longue, banale et monotone succession de coups de feu répétitifs tirés par un rebelle adolescent et de ses conversations ultérieures sur le tapis chez madame la juge Deneuve. Cela ne suscite aucun intérêt pour les personnages ou pour toute expérience cinématographique chez le spectateur. Ce n'est qu'à la fin qu'il se passe enfin quelque chose, ce que tout film plus réfléchi aurait introduit dès la première demi-heure et aurait utilisé comme un escalier vers le développement d'un drame satisfaisant. (27/04/2016)

I can't help but feel that if it had ended differently, I might have appreciated it more, but as it is, it seems like the film paints something that isn't entirely realistic. Maybe that's how human destiny, at least in this rendition, might actually turn out. The lead actor, Rod Paradot, however, really took on his role excellently and portrayed it very well in all aspects. (07/08/2017)

The film has something to build on - a strong theme, a great lead actor, and the ability to procedurally portray the system of care for troubled teenagers, but it does not have enough skills to move beyond mere empathy and lack of opinion, which is replaced by symptomatic and very cumbersome choice of classical music (unfortunately, this is not The Kid with a Bike). Bercot certainly does not lack interest and feeling in working with actors, but unfortunately she lacks the ability to build this portrait of a sociopath urgently, dynamically and with the ability to bring the viewer out of his comfort zone... The result is only a fairly decent social drama. [Cannes 2015] (14/05/2015)