"Juice" tells the story of four teenagers in a bad neighborhood who have very different personalities and ways to make ends. When the business some of them are part of gets increasingly serious, their friendship is put to an ultimate test, and possible disaster is already awaiting.
In a way, this movie consists of similar elements as other portrayals of banlieues and bad neighborhoods. Unfortunatelly, even though the cast has some very prominent surprises, the sometimes not masterfully subtile plot puts the deeper portrait of the quarter a bit into the background. For me personally, the character development was a bit too rapidly, I couldn't, as in other similar films, really emphasize with the path they were going down. Nonetheless this stays a critical film, depicting important issues and calling for answers.
All in all this is in my eyes no masterpiece but also nothing to be ashamed of. I would have wished for a more sensible picture of the neighborhood and its people but the producers chose a bit more pace, which probably works just fine for large parts of the audience, thus being a style question.
In a way, this movie consists of similar elements as other portrayals of banlieues and bad neighborhoods. Unfortunatelly, even though the cast has some very prominent surprises, the sometimes not masterfully subtile plot puts the deeper portrait of the quarter a bit into the background. For me personally, the character development was a bit too rapidly, I couldn't, as in other similar films, really emphasize with the path they were going down. Nonetheless this stays a critical film, depicting important issues and calling for answers.
All in all this is in my eyes no masterpiece but also nothing to be ashamed of. I would have wished for a more sensible picture of the neighborhood and its people but the producers chose a bit more pace, which probably works just fine for large parts of the audience, thus being a style question.