Review: ‘Standing Tall,’ starring Catherine Deneuve

Starring: Catherine Deneuve, Rod Paradot, Benoît Magimel

Director: Emmanuelle Bercot

While it doesn’t exactly elevate the usually routine trappings of stories featuring delinquent teens struggling to find their way in the world, the French drama Standing Tall (which premiered at Cannes in 2015) makes up for its use of clichés by way of strong direction, well honed performances, and a sense of dramatic depth.

16-year-old Malony (Rod Paradot) has been in and out of the juvenile detention system since he was abandoned by his mother at the age of six and placed into the care of a young mother (Sara Forestier) barely old enough to be his sister. Following a car theft that saw him tearing up the streets Grand Theft Auto-style, the judge assigned to Malony’s case since he was a boy (Catherine Deneuve) reaches her breaking point with the young man. Despite the maternal instincts she feels towards Malony, the judge orders the young man to serve a six month sentence in a juvenile rehabilitation facility under the supervision of a new case worker (Benoît Magimel). For Malony, his time at the facility isn’t only an opportunity to turn things around, but a last chance before a future conviction would send him to prison.

Director and co-writer Emmanuelle Bercot dabbles in the same sort of new wave realism that many independent filmmakers have adopted; intimate storytelling that stops just shy of taking on a documentary aesthetic. It’s not exactly an inspired choice here, but it’s still vastly preferable than treating such well worn material (which owes a distinct debt here to Short Term 12) as if it were grand melodrama. The emotions are big here, but Bercot has the smarts to create an immersive experience that’s just as much about observation as it is character.

Standing Tall focuses primarily on Malony, but never asks for sympathy or even full on understanding of why this young man seethes with rage and has developed an obvious personality disorder. Bercot and co-writer Marcia Romano know that the answers to such questions are obvious. Instead of a psychological examination that leads towards an eventual moment of redemption (which is still present here, but not as pervasive), Bercot wants to show how people cope with tough lives, bureaucracy, and examines state run child care systems from the perspective of those who have to deal with them.

Nothing about each individual story contained within Standing Tall strikes as particularly original. The arc of Malony isn’t particularly inspired, and his violent flare ups are sadly predictable. With one prominent exception, his impetuousness is fairly boilerplate, but young actor Paradot makes the most of fleshing out the character’s small little tics, neuroses and fears. The tough love shown towards him by the increasingly jaded Magimel and the straight-laced, but compassionate Deneuve can be seen in any other film on the subject almost without deviation. Even a half-baked romantic subplot involving Malony and a fellow troubled teen (Diane Rouxel) doesn’t hold any surprises.

Bercot includes requisite moments of teary-eyed, impassioned speeches and revelations, but she buries them in favour of more subtle methods of playing out the lives of these interlocking characters. In order to understand a system where troubled young men and women are told to “make something of their lives” while getting tossed into a facility where opportunities and resources are severely limited, Bercot makes sure to let the audience know the mechanics and what’s at stake instead of hitting only the dramatic high points.

Some of the best scenes in the film don’t even involve Paradot. A frustrated meeting between Malony’s case workers strikes as one of the most eye opening moments in the film, a scene that could have very easily lapsed into grand speeches about being fed up with “the system.” It actually takes a full forty minutes for any sort of concrete story to be told, and Bercot’s sense of restraint and ability to outline that stakes at hand are what ultimately make this a satisfying and worthwhile dramatic experience.

Standing Tall opens in Toronto on Friday, August 19, 2016.

Check out the trailer for Standing Tall: