The Student

Racing handheld camerawork and a pulsing rock score energize Roque's bargaining and bribing for the sake of changing an institution's antiquated customs.

It’s a film defined by momentum, by the spectacle of an unformed young man rapidly becoming someone.

Pitched somewhere between allegory and documentary, the film looks at its characters in a dispassionate, almost deadpan way. They’re something more than specimens under glass but something less than fully rounded people.

If Santiago Mitre doesn't transcend the issues of the writer's film with quite the grace of A Separation, he nonetheless manages to make good use of a fine cast.