Polytechnique
2009
***
Director: Denis Villeneuve
Cast: Maxim Gaudette, Sebastien Huberdeau, Karine Vanasse, Evelyne Brochu, Johanne-Marie Tremblay, Pierre-Yves Cardinal
In December 1989, a gunman targeted and killed women at the École Polytechnique de Montréal in Canada. This dramatisation depicts the horrific events and their aftermath from three different perspectives, those of a traumatised male student, a wounded female student, and the shooter. Denis Villeneuve's third feature is a short but extremely tense drama, which is well-acted, wonderfully directed, and stylishly shot in black and white. However, I do not understand the reason for the film's existence. Why do we need to see the circumstances of a real-life mass shooting in all the gory details, especially as the incel shooter gets most screen time. I find the whole endeavour exploitative, tasteless, and objectionable.
