Jessica Forever

In a parallel universe of the not so distant future a lone young woman, Jessica, leads a band of male orphans rejected by the outside world for their violent tendencies. Her influence calms their will to create mayhem. Without Jessica these misfits are easy prey to the security forces who wish to eliminate them. Together they form a strike force protecting similarity situated male youth. With Jessica there is no blame, and all are free to leave. She searches for ways that the orphans can be happy again. "Bad things don't last forever," Jessica declares "we have to stop them from happening." Yet when one of the more vulnerable members of the group is killed, even Jessica struggles to contain their rage.

This original and refreshingly independent film contains attractive scenery, characters and actors, and wonderful ideas. Departed relatives reappear to talk to the living, there are night swims in the moonlight and the landscape seems to come alive to protect its residents. Given a better budget, organization and acting talent, this film could go somewhere. World premiere seen at the 2018 Toronto International Film Festival.

There is nothing this movie did well, the synopsis lied to us completely, the characters are as interesting as chocolate raisins, the Jessica in the title has absolutely no impact in the narrative, the first 20 minutes has a plot whereas the hour after that had none, the music is horrendous, the editing is choppy and confusing... And I could go on with the negatives.

It is probably the worst made movie I have ever seen but I couldn't stop laughing at what I was watching. As a comedy I would take this over some of the tosh they put out nowadays but that is all for the wrong reasons. I had fun but I could completely understand someone coming out of this movie saying this was one of the worst they've ever seen.

This french movie was a really good surprise for me! It's a rare & strong painting of our world and his complicated feelings. The story, the characters and the images are both unique, strong and powerfull. I've never seen this before and I won't forget it.

To start off, I'm not sure exactly why Shudder acquired rights to this film. It's not horror, nor is it something that they'd usually push on their platform, especially as a "Shudder Original". At any rate, this movie is very... French. Super experimental, super weird, and super unrewarding.

The whole premise is supposed to be a dystopian world (which is not at all dystopian, but more like a late 2010s world where absolutely nothing has changed) where these misfit orphans rule the world and "take back what is rightfully theirs" (which never happens at all outside of dialogue). This is an intriguing enough story, and there are so many scenes in this movie that should have enriched it, but with all of the scenes and all of the characters, so little happens. In fact, you could argue that nothing at all happens.

And what does happen include some very weird things including but not limited to: letters on a birthday cake floating around, a dead sister reanimating to play a video game with her brother, a gun floating around a bedroom and speaking through another character, blood randomly covering someone, and someone lighting themselves on fire. And the list goes on.

Now, the writing isn't in itself terrible, but it's just a plot that is severely underutilized and does nothing in the way of storytelling. So maybe the whole point of the film was to show the inherent beauty of meaninglessness and the struggle of being alone, but I personally think that, A) if that was the point, it was done poorly, and B) stories like that aren't always great or enjoyable.

I do like an experimental film here and there, but this one was too grounded in reality for the absurdity to feel like any more than distraction and wasted potential.

I'm not quite sure why everyone is marking this movie so low. It's a fascinating look at masculinity for young men growing up in a violent, shoot-em-up world that is near-reality. The scene where they dance together is full of young boy angst, bubbling under the skin. Sure, it's slow-paced and grows, but the idea that a female presence can calm their anger in a way they have never known is interesting and explored well. I'm not keen on the ending, which seems to then go against what Jessica has in mind all along, but the idea that an unsaid terrible world event lurks in their past and is never named is very clever and maybe just a little too low key for the masses to grasp, but why are there drones, why is nobody about, why are huge houses empty? This is never addressed, which is part of the unique feel to the film. More movies like this are needed. It's not just beautiful, but the fact it is is only a tribute to the filmmakers.