À l’ouest de Pluton

Pierre-Olivier, Émilie, Steve and Nicolas, all aged 14 to 16, live in a Quebec City suburb and have the concerns you’d expect, from falling in love to finding friendship. One wild night, the group experiences something that changes how they see the world. Rough-edged, semi-improvisational and made on a shoestring, this coming-of-age film is strikingly authentic, charting the loss of illusion through a brilliant interweaving of the personal and the universal. Much like Larry Clark (Kids, Bully), À l’ouest de Pluton manages to nail the realities of adolescence in a way that knocks stereotypes sideways. A ground-breaking portrayal of a key period in life. (FNC)