Titreenp SERIOUSLY. This is what the crap Hollywood still puts out?

Merolliv I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.

Sanjeev Waters A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

Scotty Burke It is interesting even when nothing much happens, which is for most of its 3-hour running time. Read full review

Niayesh Abdolkarimi This is a powerful movie about the low social class living in France mostly Arabs living in a poor neighborhood.a number of Arab teenagers are trying to prepare a play for school meanwhile love comes between them and makes things difficult.but i think it's not a romantic movie at all. the feelings that grow throughout the story is out of loneliness, not choices. i movie is cold and dusty and we don't want to be in those children shoes. they are not having fun despite their age. they are troubled and aggressive.they act like criminals and i a scene we see that they are treated as criminals by the police. Kechiche's directing always amazes me. i wonder how could he make those novice young actor to play this much life-like and comfortable. generally i loved the movie.

rg This is one of those films that'll cause you to wonder just how it made it past the critics alive -- and if your spouse will ever again agree to "watch something French" with you! Jerkily filmed, peopled by endlessly foul-mouthed street louts, and ruthless in its examination of the utterly banal, this film will be a puzzle to most who decide to take it home from the video shop. Perhaps its original allure was in its multi-ethnic cast and the warm and fuzzy resonance multicultural themes always elicit among left-ish film critics. The troubles now endemic to her low-rent ethnic suburbs may cause the French to re-evaluate their initial enchantment with this film. Non?

fedka2 This is a dream film, of which I am so entirely thrilled that it received so many awards over the mediocre but over hyped Rois et reine. The self effacement of the director in this film is impeccable, one has the eerie sense of watching a Fred Wiseman documentary. It is true that dialogue can run long and circuitously, but for those with my taste for extreme realism this can only be a downside if the acting is poor, and in l'esquive it is not. The acting is on the contrary frighteningly good, whatever self consciousness the members of this young cast might have before the camera is immediately absorbed in the documentary-like mise en scene, that is to say, it only furthers the sensibilities and aesthetic as a whole. L'esquive is a singular film that we can only hope will influence a generation of young French filmmakers who are tired of the well lit, over produced cinema this country is getting far too comfortable with.

Omar Mouallem L'Esquive is the coming (and going) of age story about Krimo, a resilient, emotionless, passive teenage boy living in a French ghetto. He is surrounded by his macho violent homeys, confused girlfriend, conniving teenage girls and a beautiful actress named Lydia, played by what may be the Olson Twin's long-lost triplet.It plays out like the French "Kids", without the poignancy. It's tedious. In fact, it gives new meaning to tedious. These shrill teenagers are constantly at each others throats. The few moments of calmness were not enough to hold people in there seats at the Vancouver Film Festival. After 40 minutes of hormonal bickering, the theater was half full.There is not enough story or character to keep this going. In needs to be taken back to the editing room and trimmed of down 40 of its 120 minutes. No doubt this would leave you with a short tale, but it's as long as this thin story needs to be told. Many scenes are used to explain what we've just scene. One-topic dialogue runs for as long as 10 minutes, in pointless circles until an opening is made for another superfluous scene.However I will say that the drama is very realistic and plays out in a natural ways that is commendable. But for story and entertainment's sake, things need to be cut, sharpened, explained and unexplained.As the end neared, I could feel my ears trembling, knowing that whatever the climax was, it would be ten times more shrill and irritating as the rest of the script. But I was wrong. Not only was it quieter and tolerable. It was void of a climax, at all. Not only is there no character change, but there seemed to be an adamant effort to avoid this natural convention at all odds. Even of it could have saved the movie.There are short moments of charm, wit, humor and a minuscule amount of beauty. However, L'Esquive is nothing you can't find at your local Blockbuster.