Bad Company (2001)

I will leave $100 in my will to anyone who can guarantee that I will never have to sit through another film about the behavioral misadventures of teenage girls. That goes double for French films on the topic. While not as obnoxious as, say, thirteen, this film still treads ground that is weary to death from overuse. (Yes, we know, teenage girls sometimes fall in with bad crowds. Yes, we know, teenage girls sometimes have sex for the wrong reasons. Yes, yes, a thousand times yes.) And just when it seems that the film could do the impossible and pull itself out of its rut, it digs a third act out of its ass that refuses to be taken seriously. One wonders if the director actually understood the material he was tackling. There is one reason to see this, though -- Maud Forget. Her extraordinary, self-possessed debut here throws the rest of this junk into cold relief, and she almost makes the tedium worth bearing. Almost.

Grade: C