Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on April 2013

The latest from Michel Gondry (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind but also Green Hornet) is an hour and a half of intense teenage effusiveness, about a few dozen insanely energetic Bronx high-school kids sharing a city bus home on the last day of school before summer. These soon-to-be-adults yearn, spurn, chatter, flatter, bully and befriend as they jockey for status. It’s not a doc, but every scene is meticulously crafted to play like one. Gondry spent two years with these kids at an after-school acting program weaving their real lives into the script. Starts off irritating; grows on you.