Falcon Lake

We need more films like this.

On the surface, this is a fairly typically Canadian film: small and slow and located in Quebec cottage country during the summertime. However, this film is special, slowly capturing an building friendship and intimacy between a 16 year-old girl and a 13 year-old boy; sexual intimacy is secondary, as more powerful drives of self-discovery, wanting to find acceptance and love in the often intense social world of early teens. The perspective is particularly Quebecoise, but mostly universally Canadian (and North American, more generally) of short summers in cottage/lake country. The director might have erred too much on the brooding and ominous aspects of the lake and woods, but this film is otherwise very well written, filmed, and acted. In some ways this film is the Quebecois version of the similarly great Ontario-Canadian summer teen cottage movie, Sleeping Giant, but with a subtle but important supernatural element. Well worth seeing, and the subtitles are not cumbersome, as the dialogue is mostly light and slow. The ending is a surprise, and a bit of a downer, but works well.

I was very disappointed and bored by this movie, the teenagers were irritating and the scenario opaque. Couldn't really get the horror story, and the ending is a bit cliché.

Rarely do you find a movie that makes you feel the complete freedom you felt just before adulthood. What a Masterpiece! Exquisite.

Good movie to watch on a Friday night. Somewhat spooky but it is actually a coming-of-age flick that entertains. Great acting by the two young leads.

This movie had absolutely nothing to do with Stephan Michalak's 1967 encounter.

A haunting masterpiece!

This is some fine work by Charlotte Le Bon. It shows that even in her first feature length film, she already has a maturity and control of images, pace, camera position, and dialogue we expect from veteran directors. Again, as is so often the case, the director is a writer for the screenplay, along with François Choquet, with the original work by Bastien Vives. Along with editor Lena and Brandl's cinematography, they've made a film that keeps an appropriate tone throughout, and excellent pacing for the movie's 100 minutes. Such delicate and authentic scenes were written then brought to life by the director, production design, and some very fine acting. The leads of teenagers Chloe and Bastien were cast exceptionally well, as the two have strong, seemingly effortless chemistry together. But even more they breathe full life into their characters. Montpetit as Chloe, an emerging young woman who's sixteen but still has some of the adolescent in her. And Engel gives us a Bastien of the uncertainty and inner terrors of an 14 yr. old getting his first sense of being intimate with a girl while trying to hang with the older teens and hold his own. Loved this 3.8 stars

EL MIEDO A LA VERDAD Tengo demasiados miedos, ya los comenté una vez, y no pienso volver a manifestarlos en este escrito, no pienso darle vueltas a los callejones sin salida, prefiero conocer a Chloé y nadar junto a ella en ese lago lleno de ficción fantasmal, creada por ella, esperando el fin de todo, me encanta su imaginación. No estaría mal experimentar ese ciclo de muerte pulmonar bajo el agua (lo que comentan en la orilla del lago en una secuencia hermosa y desgarradora, cómo la historia y su desarrollo) si consiguiera pasar al menos un verano en esa casa y sus hogueras y no perder lo que él. Comienzo observándola y escuchándola, entusiasmado porque sabía que ésta iba a ser la primera vez que notara ese líquido algo salado y costoso de sacar a la luz sobre mi piel hasta dejarse caer por debajo de mi barbilla y desplomarse en mi mano (casi me pasa lo mismo con varias cómo; Oppenheimer, Love Life, La vida no tan simple, Kepler Sexto B y La Paradoja de Antares, pero en esas me resistí algo más aunque el daño ya estaba causado). EL LAGO ROMPECORAZONES Mientras pasan los minutos en ésta, me da más interés y menos clichés, más reflexión y seriedad, es una historia muy madura para ser adolescente. Su música y sus secuencias fijas a paisajes y caminos oscuros me causa más terror del que me causa el propio género, también melancolía y soledad, y me avisa de que algo malo va a pasar, así era. Sus protagonistas son increíbles y les he cogido aprecio, creo que me van ayudar mucho. Tanto Bastian, ese niño frágil, inexperimentado, solo, miedoso, enamoradizo hasta las trancas, le comprendo. Igual que a Chloé, más espabilada, independiente, con peores miedos que Bastian aunque no lo parezca, traicionada y débil. Completan una conexión que yo no he encontrado hasta ahora con nadie y que costará de conseguir. No puedo seguir con ésta, cada vez que la pienso me derrumbo y caigo en el mismo pozo del que ya suelo caer normalmente. Una historia abrumadora y desgarradora que muestra las primeras puertas de un amor amenazante y la dificultad de entender a la adolescencia, nunca lo conseguiré. So you never really die, then with scythe and cloak, death comes waltzing to your side, as the visions pass you ask if there was meaning to your life The Answer - Richie Sambora RICHIE VALERO, SEPTIEMBRE 2023, ESPAÑA.

Beautifully shot film, thoroughly engaging.