After having made an effect in festivals throughout the year and having even been among the candidates to represent the France at the Oscars 2023, The Worst, the story of a film crew who settles in a city in the North of France with the casting of the kids of the said city, arrives in theaters.
Sensitive and nuanced portraits
The whole bias of the film is to show portraits of human beings, whether the children of the Picasso city or the members of the film crew, in moments of joy and sorrow, in a constant gray area. In The Worst, we don't have a filter. We show what we see, even if it means having an almost documentary aspect that borrows from the social film but also from the suburban film with its classic scheme: a new world is offered to a group of city kids. Nevertheless, this rewriting of genres is also nuanced. While we tend to see defeatist suburban films, which always end badly and melodramatically, here we stay clinging to dry land and leave the door open. The film tells the story of the shooting, this period in the life of each of its characters, and presents it as an initiatory stage that will make everyone grow. We do not idealize or dramatize the suburbs, and we even allow ourselves to make a small comment in a dialogue that evokes the morality of all this… "In what light do we show these kids, by the way? In the purest and simplest way, in their daily lives, and it is up to the spectator to make his interpretation.
The right balance between humor and emotion
The risk of the social film is to be too tearful or to play too much on a comic aspect, even if it means becoming completely insensitive to its subject and next to the plate just to make its comic springs work. Les Pires manages, thanks to his great sincerity always and his impressive naturalness to avoid these problems and very rightly doses comedy and drama; The result is a dramatic comedy that walks its spectator from emotion to emotion, all lulled by a precise and aesthetic staging. The film seeks beauty and a kind of poetry (almost societal) everywhere, and it is felt in the way we are presented with places, characters, relationships between them, all this while never losing that authentic side that makes it such a great cinematic and human experience.
An impressive cast
The actors who play the roles of Picasso's children are all amateurs. Each of their performances is stellar and there is no doubt that they have a promising future. Whether to radiate in moments of joy or intense emotion, or to explode in moments of visceral violence… They have energy to spare and give even more personality to the film, one could even say that they help to carry a material that already seemed very solid. It was crucial to bring these characters to life with such fervor, and the gamble is successful. It should also be noted that the young Mallory Wanecque, interpreter of Lily, has just been nominated for the César for best female hope. We can also of course salute the acting performance of the film crew, especially that of Johan Heldenbergh who plays the role of Gabriel, the whimsical but benevolent director. A magnificent portrait of different human beings, who have their qualities as well as their defects, and who are shown living a touching adventure and going through all the emotions of the world. To this is added a staging worked and very clean, and a cast of the most impressive. The Pires will continue to be talked about and touch the public, there is no doubt. In theaters November 30.
