Peneflix MOVIE REVIEWS BY PENEFLIX
Selected by a distinguished international jury, “A Childhood” resonates with greatness on a myriad of levels; the travails of thirteen-year-old “Jimmy”, whose home- life stagnates in punitive purgatory, a drug-addicted mother and her malicious, miserly, moral-less mate; he cooks, cleans and takes immaculate care of his younger brother; ashamed of his daily existence and its detriments, he refuses to sink into moral turpitude and ingeniously rises above staggering odds to overcome his bleak “childhood”.
Director Philippe Claudel balances the gruesome, ghoulish, unwholesome confines of his home with innate goodness exhibited by outsiders: grandmother, street venders, fourth grade teacher; his lithesome, lovely girlfriend, a tennis instructor all recognize something in Jimmy that begs empathy; despite his familial baggage his core is pure, informed by natural pride and dignity.
The film commences with a tennis match being played on their wretched television; a match between Jimmy Connors and Arthur Ashe; a subtle and lovely metaphor for the “power of one”; a phoenix, rising from indissoluble circumstances into fabulous formidability .
FIVE STARS!!!!!
Peneflix
