The Worst Ones

2022 1h 40m FR

👍

6.8

SOLID

★6.8TMDB · 89

DramaComedy

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

The story centres on a group of teenagers street cast in their neighbourhood and selected to play in a feature film during the summer. The film tells the story of this film shoot and of the connections that will be formed during it.

“Some stories are better left unspoiled.”

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Cast

Mallory Wanecque
Lilly
Timéo Mahaut
Ryan
Johan Heldenbergh
Gabriel
Loïc Pech
Jessy
Mélina Vanderplancke
Maylis
Esther Archambault
Judith
Matthias Jacquin
Victor
Angélique Gernez
Mélodie

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Lise Akoka
Writers: Lise Akoka, Romane Gueret, Elénore Gurrey
Languages: French, English
Countries: France, United States of America

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Shot for just $2.6M — micro-budget by Hollywood standards.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Earned back only 1% of its budget on initial theatrical — a commercial disappointment on release.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

ERA

Did you know

Released 4 years ago.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

Dialogue crosses 2 languages: French, English.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

International production across 2 countries: France, United States of America.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Lise Akoka, shot by Éric Dumont. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

ERA

Did you know

Editor Albertine Lastera shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Mallory Wanecque and Timéo Mahaut and Johan Heldenbergh carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Lise Akoka directs. Éric Dumont behind the camera. Albertine Lastera cuts. A commercial under-performer on release. Produced in France, United States of America. Dialogue in French, English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Shot for just $2.6M — micro-budget by Hollywood standards.
2Earned back only 1% of its budget on initial theatrical — a commercial disappointment on release.
3Released 4 years ago.
4Dialogue crosses 2 languages: French, English.
5International production across 2 countries: France, United States of America.
6Directed by Lise Akoka, shot by Éric Dumont. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
7Editor Albertine Lastera shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
8Mallory Wanecque and Timéo Mahaut and Johan Heldenbergh carry the top of the cast.
9IMDB entry: tt19719862 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
10Only 89 TMDB ratings — you're getting ahead of the curve on this one.
11Classified under 14 themes, including "france", "interview", "bullying", "attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (adhd)".

The technical file

Cinematography: Éric Dumont
Editing: Albertine Lastera
Makeup / hair: Fanny Jakubowicz
Sound: Marc Doisne
Runtime: 100 min · 1h 40m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Budget: $2,600,000
Box office: $19,833
Return: 1% of budget
Original language: FR
IMDB: The Worst Ones (2022)

Also by

Lise Akoka

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Community reviews

What people are saying

Brent Marchant2023-05-24
★ 4/10
At the risk of sounding snarky, the title of this debut feature from writer-directors Lise Akoka and Romane Gueret could be interpreted in multiple (and unflattering) ways. Suffice it to say, however, this documentary-style drama about a filmmaker seeking to cast his production with nonprofessional actors from a low-income neighborhood (i.e., ghetto) in suburban northern France presents a haphazard mélange of story threads that seem more meandering than insightful or enlightening. The four protagonists who are selected for this fictional work become disapprovingly known as “the worst ones” for supposedly having the most notorious reputations in the neighborhood (though, when honestly compared to many of their contemporaries, they don’t come across as significantly different from the rest of the locals). While this offering seems to be attempting to convey how their everyday existence mirrors that of the characters they’re portraying, that goal is never clearly delineated nor effectively achieved, making viewers wonder what’s really going on in their off-screen lives (not to mention in the parts they’ve taken on in a story that seems to make little sense). To cloud matters further, in an attempt to show (rather than tell about) what the lives of these youthful actors are like, the picture genuinely feels more improvised than structured. What’s more, claims that this film offers a gritty, groundbreaking look into the challenge-filled lives of the economically underprivileged are vastly overstated, given that this territory has already been covered (and better) numerous times before in such other French releases as “Girlhood” (2014), “Dheepan” (2015), “Les Misérables” (2019) and “Gagarine” (2020), not to mention in an array of releases from many other countries. This is all compounded by the fact that much of the narrative is tedious, unfocused, imbalanced, boring and even silly at times. Indeed, how this release managed to capture the 2022 Cannes Film Festival Un Certain Regard Award genuinely escapes me. The underlying aim behind this picture may have arguably been a noble one, but its poorly planned execution and jumbled final cut fail to make that apparent, undoing whatever good might have been intended. Skip this one.

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