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Polytechnique

POLYTECHNIQUE(Denis Villeneuve)See listings Rating: NNNN


Quebec director Denis Villeneuve eschews the surrealist touches of his previous features, August 32nd On Earth and Maelström, for a wrenching, immediate drama about the Montreal massacre.

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The Steadicam-imposed dread of the film’s first movement – in which unwitting students at the École Polytechnique go about their daily routines while the unnamed assailant (Maxime Gaudette) prepares for his rampage – nods in the direction of Gus Van Sant’s Elephant.

The second half adopts a looser rhythm, following two composite characters (Karine Vanasse and Sébastien Huberdeau) as they cope with post-traumatic stress and survivor guilt in markedly different ways.

If you’re looking for a grand political statement, you won’t find it here. Villeneuve and screenwriter Jacques Davidts refuse to comment on the incident beyond acknowledging its transformative horror – a horror that resonates in every frame of the film long after the shooting has stopped.

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