My First Highway (2016)
During the annual holiday with his parents at a campsite in Spain, Benjamin (16) falls in love with a Flemish girl operating a local supermarket with her mother. She is beautiful and intriguing and drags him along on an adventure that takes a dangerous turn. This will be a summer he will never forget for the rest of his life.
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Good start, but then it gets ruined
Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.
Clever and entertaining enough to recommend even to members of the 1%
This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows
A classic element of the film noir dramas from the forties is the femme fatale. Usually, she is a beautiful woman, who seduces and misleads the male character, and is the inevitable cause of his ultimate downfall. She is strong, smart and evil, he is weak, naive and kind-hearted. Barbara Stanwyck in 'Double Indemnity' is the best example.I don't know if Flemish director Kevin Meul has seen many of these noirs. But in his first feature film, he has chosen for a similar screenplay. The male lead character is seduced by an attractive female, he comes under her spell and does things he wouldn't have done otherwise.In this case, the story is not very noir-ish. The lead character is a 17-year old boy, on holiday with his parents and little brother on a camping in Spain. The part of the femme fatale is played by a slightly older girl, the daughter of the local supermarket owner, who also happens to be Flemish. He is attracted by her wild streak, and they do dangerous things like driving his parents' car without a licence. But one thing leads to another and things go terribly wrong.This is a nice screenplay, but the film doesn't really live up to it. There are a few awkward scenes, some things are left unexplained, it's all a bit half-hearted. This could have been an exciting film, but it feels unsatisfactory. Loud guitar music is not enough to express teenage angst, and neither is a shot of a violent computer game enough to explain suppressed aggression. The movie is not bad, it's just that it could have been a bit better.