Detention

Detention is an American production based on a pretty original concept. Actually, an extremely original concept. At one point, it even suddenly turns into a movie of a different genre. I am sure not every viewer will appreciate this and will think the movie is stupid. However, if you want a pure no-brainer, a really fast, crazy, but most importantly very entertaining and surprising spectacle, then dig in. (03/19/2020)

The Breakfast Club on acid cut with Back to the Future and seasoned with Fight Club, or a phantasmagorical meta trip in which pop-culture references and self-reflection of genre formulas collide in a raging vortex across several time dimensions and elements of slasher flicks, high-school romances, sports melodramas, outsider comedies and every other possible kind of teen movies are mutated into bizarre forms. Detention is so post-modern, it’s pre-future. (08/22/2020)

The moment has arrived to historically embarrass myself, but I must give this film a thumbs up. Detention is an insane meta parody, with a plot that doesn’t make much sense, but the world where it takes place is so crazy that it doesn’t need to. There’s a bunch of teenagers, a masked killer, time travel, a grizzly bear, a UFO, the end of the world, a mutant boy, transmission of consciousness and other horror and sci-fi motifs; overall it’s quite a mess, and yet I have the impression that behind this film there are some pretty competent and smart people who unleashed their creativity and wanted to have fun. It has one pop-culture reference after another, one Easter-egg after another (I had to pause the film several times to catch everything), there’s always something happening, and it’s very funny and refreshing in its own particular way. I would define it with the oxymoron “smart stupidity”, which may also profile a potentially satisfied group of viewers… Technically it’s good. As far as I’m concerned, an entertained three stars, but I’d be very reluctant to recommend it. (07/19/2012)