The Worst Ones

The Worst Ones, a French drama film directed by Lise Akoka and Romane Gueret, and a coming-of-age mockumentary which snagged itself the Prix Un Certain Regard at Cannes in 2022, is a nuanced critique of casting which also offers an excellent look into the lives of some of the troubled youth of France.  The premise of the film is a sort of behind-the-scenes look at the casting of local youths in the Picasso neighborhood of Boulogne-sur-Mer in northern France. The visionary director, Gabriel, played by Johan Heldenbergh, is ambitious and naive. He knows he wants troubled kids who are both gritty and struggling economically.

As far as the citizens of the neighborhood are concerned, he is taking “the worst ones,” which is where the film takes its title. They fear he will represent the neighborhood negatively. Our characters are all going through something. The star of the film inside the film, Ryan, played by Timéo Mahuat, is having a hard time at school, struggling with ADHD and bullying. His fights with other students at school are what attract Gabriel to him.

Courtesy Kino Lorber

A young girl named Lily, played by Mallory Wanecque, the leading girl of The Worst Ones, is a confused 15-year old who has just lost her little brother to cancer. Troubled and depressed, she soon attracts a reputation for fooling around with boys. She is cast as the cute girl who ends up pregnant, with Ryan as her little brother, who will ultimately defend her. Jessy, a 17-year-old boy, played by Loïc Pech, is cocky and arrogant but hides what truly bothers him. He is selected as the father of Lily’s baby. According to Gabriel, they are both “vibrant” and he offers them much direction to make their relationship seem real on screen. This includes a simulated sex scene between the two, which is just one of the ways the film shows that performers, in this case young ones, can be exploited while on set.

Lily is a star in the making and soon bonds with Gabriel and a sound engineer named Victor, who is played by Matthias Jacquin. Lily is smitten with the 32-year-old Victor. For his part, Victor also loves Lily, but is afraid to show any true affection towards her for fear of the inevitable trouble it will bring both of them. The pain of a seemingly unrequited love upsets the already impressionable Lily in a major way. All of the kids are learning about growing up. They are being taken advantage of in this film, but they come from such a poor neighborhood that their families are happy to have them participate. A young girl, Maylis, played by Mélina Vanderplancke, who is bullied for her perceived sexuality, quits the film after realizing she has no lines and is basically being cast for her vibe and diversity.  This is pretty telling; the film tries to warn us about the dangers of being cast in a film, especially if you are a non-actor, and a youth at that.

Courtesy Kino Lorber

There are many amusing moments as well. The kids all have a rapport with each other, and for better or worse, the director Gabriel has a paternal relationship with all of the kids. Some, like Lily, strewn with grief from the death of her young brother, welcome this attention. Jessy, unsure about his sexuality and eager to come off as an experienced young man, finds Gabriel strange and lashes out at him. Ryan, who has just been removed from the custody of his mother due to alleged abuse, now lives with his sister Mélodie, played to excellent effect by Angélique Gernez, who loves him deeply. Ryan tries to find himself throughout the shooting of the film, and eventually finds purpose in releasing his emotions on camera.

The Worst Ones is a distinctly European mockumentary that utilizes the grittiness of Skins and reality-based casting to create a truly unique and captivating picture about how kids can be taken out of a bad neighborhood and given a chance at something bigger than themselves. Although the kids all have different feelings about each other, they must band together to complete the project. What happens after the completion of the film is anyone’s guess, but the meta-referential approach makes The Worst Ones an engrossing experience that all too closely resembles real life.

Courtesy Kino Lorber 

Wanecque as Lily definitely steals the show but Mahaut’s Ryan is also super endearing and sweet. The kids all just want to be a part of something bigger and to take a well-deserved break from the rough life they have all come to know, in one way or another.

The tongue-in-cheek commentary on the film industry is refreshing; the vulnerable youth are all too familiar, especially with the unfortunate circumstances we have seen child actors go through in later life. The Worst Ones achieves its aims easily. It plays like a reality show, and the characters are well-written and relatable. Receiving general critical acclaim at this point, Akoka and Gueret’s mockumentary nails the critique of the film industry with flying colors.

The Worst Ones is now playing in limited theaters.