Play (2011)

It's a mild crowd pleaser for people who are exhausted by blockbusters.

This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

Teenage boys can be horrible: watching 'Play' brought back shuddering memories from my own childhood. In 'Play', the horror is made more interesting by being set against a background of differential affluence and a racial divide; the fine line between "play" and pure bullying is also nicely explored. But it's a slow film, with no rapid cutting or background music: indeed, it's shot in a strange manner with static cameras often leaving part of the subject (or even parts of the subjects, heads for example) off screen. The result gives you the feeling of an by-stander, overhearing parts of somebody else's story; eventually, the tension builds, but it feels like a deliberately off-putting way to make a movie. At the end, I didn't know quite what to think about it: one can alternatively feel repelled by, and sympathetic to, its protagonists, but the surely intentional absence of a clear moral or emotional message means the film ends nowhere. Perhaps we're meant to leave this movie pondering matters of class and race; I left it just glad I'm not fourteen any more.

A very thought provoking bleak representation of modern life for many young males. The fly on the wall style filming takes away the emotion of the impact of the events on the group of boys. It is very brave and potentially controversial in its representation of different socio-economic and ethnic groups. For that reason the film maker needed to film it in an understated way. I think the penultimate scene is brilliant. Although the film is set in Sweden it could have been set in many cities in North Western Europe. The film lacks pace makes it a difficult film for Audiences to engage with. The apparent limited use of conventional editing camera angles and post production techniques reinforces its attempt at making it an honest representation.

This film is about a gang of black youths in Gothenburg who use elaborate psychological tricks to steal from Swedish boys of the same age, such as their mobiles, designer cloths and essentially everything what they have. The reason why this film is painful to watch is the total psychological control this gang has over the Swedish boys. This is not achieved through violence but through elaborate psychological tricks. Part of this is a complete lack of respect for the victims. However, this film is far from generic but is a detailed study of the Swedish mentality and how this can be exploited. In terms of style the film has written Michael Haneke all over it which is not a bad thing. The use of wide shots makes is often impossible to see facial expressions which is a bit of a shame but on the other hand leaves room for interpretations. The bullying on the tram reminded me of a scene in Haneke's "Code unknown". Overall this film is hard to watch because of the relentless bullying but this makes it even more essential watching. It's a brave film portraying this gang in a very negative light but it is honest by doing so and not trying to create artificially a "balanced" view.

The film shows a group of bullies and their relationship with their victims, and how the group works during different circumstances. The movie is based on actual events in Gothenburg, where kids used a scheme wherein they accused their targets of having stolen mobile phones. Through coercion and psychological violence they then make the victims to hand over the cell phone to get out of the uncomfortable situation that arises. During the movie, the power relationship between the groups, the bullies and the victims, often changes and the bullies ask their victims for help, which they also get, as the victims play along in the social setup that has been created. The interactions with adults that the groups have are unsettling. The adults often refuse to interfere, perhaps due to insecurity about where the line goes, or whether they are assumed to interfere. Some adults also seem to downplay what is happening in front of them, almost acting as if children cannot abuse other children, and what they witness is child's play.Ultimately, the adults and the children seem to be from different worlds altogether, worlds that are not meant to meet.The end has several interesting twists. One of them is when, several months later, one parent of the robbed children finds one of the perpetrators, and decides to confront him. This is done in a similar bully-like way as the bullies were using in the first place. During the movie I felt very angry and upset, and I was picturing several ways I would deal with the bullies. But this last scene shows the futility of acting in such short-sighted ways; the reasons for acting like bullies are reinforced as he views himself even more of an outsider, and the abusive parents are later confronted by onlookers.Trying to explain their frustration and the situation to the confronting onlookers, I feel as if the parents are not only talking for themselves, but also for my own viewpoints.The absurdity of using bullying to stop bullying is exposed, and I laugh at my own simple and reductionist reactions I had just a few minutes ago. This was an great movie, one of the best, most developed depictions of human behavior, domination and submission in social interaction. If I ever become a parent, I would definitely show this movie to my children as they are about to enter school, to discuss how to deal with bullies and to talk about how bullying arises.