School's Out (L'Heure de la Sortie) (2018)

One of my favouite movies topics, high school, such a rich subject to plumb for comedy (Romy and Michele's High School Reunion) or romance (Love, Simon), horror (Veronica, Donnie Darko), or social satire (Heathers, Clueless, Donnie Darko) is here used as the setting for a chilling thriller about a substitute teacher (the handsome Laurent Lafitte) who steps in to teach a class of precociously intelligent  children after their usual teacher throws himself out of a window, and while it is pretty easy to see where the movie is going long before it gets there and while it doesn't quite nail its point, the movie's overarching themes encompassing so many current world issues makes it rivetting, thoughtful stuff.

★★★★☆

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Boomerang (2015)

A man stirs up family tensions when he starts making inquiries into the death of his mother who died while he was young, in this French mystery and family drama filled with such likeable, warm main characters that it is impossible not to be enamoured with the mystery even as revelations move things closer and closer to melodrama.

★★★★☆

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Elle (2018)

Paul Verhoeven, a director often accused of objectifying women in his movies, opens this gripping thriller with a violent home assault and rape of a woman - Isabelle Huppert, brilliant as Michèle, the founder of a video game development company - and from there weaves a twisty plot of dark humour and chilling suspense against the backdrop of Michèle's company men designing video games featuring violence against women for fun.

★★★★☆

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