Afterschool (2009)

Synopsis: Early twentysomething writer/director Antonio Campos makes a startlingly assured directorial debut with AFTERSCHOOL. Set in an exclusive Northeastern prep school, the film follows Robert (Ezra... Early twentysomething writer/director Antonio Campos makes a startlingly assured directorial debut with AFTERSCHOOL. Set in an exclusive Northeastern prep school, the film follows Robert (Ezra Miller), a confused youngster who spends most of his time watching videos on the Internet. Some of these are harmless, but some are much more troubling, including pornography and actual fights that have been captured on various consumer-grade video cameras. Robert himself doesn't appear to have violent desires, yet when he gets his hands on a video camera for a class project and starts becoming closer to fellow classmate Amy (Addison Timlin), he experiences feelings he has previously only encountered on a computer screen. During the filming of a class project, Robert unwittingly captures the overdose of two of the school's most popular girls--twins, no less--sending him into an introverted, despondent tailspin. Campos's film owes an obvious debt to the work of German provocateur Michael Haneke, and not only in its controversial subject matter. More directly, it's in Campos's ability to create a palpable sense of tension with the camera. Credit must be given here to cinematographer Jody Lee Lipes (WILD COMBINATION: A PORTRAIT OF ARTHUR RUSSELL), who uses a slowly roaming camera when necessary, but otherwise maintains a static, off-kilter frame, hinting at the dangers that lurk just beyond every corner. AFTERSCHOOL speaks volumes about the influence of the Internet and technology on our nation's impressionable youth. [More]

Starring: Ezra Miller, Jeremy White, Emory Cohen, Michael Stuhlbarg

Starring: Ezra Miller, Jeremy White, Emory Cohen, Michael Stuhlbarg, Addison Timlin, Rosemarie DeWitt, Lee Wilkof, Paul Sparks, Bill Raymond, Gary Wilmes, Christopher McCann

Director: Antonio Campos

Director: Antonio Campos
Screenwriter: Antonio Campos
Producer: Josh Mond, Sean Durkin
Composer: Rakotondrabe Gael
Studio: IFC Films

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