The Trotsky

An important film, the question are you inactive through boredom or apathy is central to the plot though the theme is easier for me to understand as, wait for things to happen or control your life. It is important for people to take a active part in life and in this film Leon Bronstein finds the students letting fate do as it may with them and gets them to take a hand in their lives and the world around them. This theme appears everywhere in life and this film helps clarify it by showing how you can change things and why you should do so. This theme appears in psychology, be responsible for what happens to you, for example, also a woman from Africa, talking on CNN, said, you must not wait for things to happen but make them happen, a message women, more given to accepting their lot, need to hear. The film also links getting the students to take an active role at school to sexual abuse at schools, another important topic, the hero says that, had sexually abused children had a student union they could have stopped the abuse. Even in school people are in danger. The theme of bullying in school and abuse is very big just now and Bronstein does face and defeat bullying not by saying things will get better, which is wishful thinking but by effective and complicated action, which I judge to be a more real way to deal with things. rose macaskie

I read some really bad reviews of this movie before going to see it. In the end, I liked it better than I thought I would. However, a lot of the political humour is very basic and wouldn't make sense to people with more than a passing knowledge of communism, activism, etc.

However, as a teen comedy, not to be taken seriously as a political film, it works very well for the most part. A lot of the scenes, acting, and one-liners are quite funny.

Some of the acting done by secondary characters is not really up to par. Even Leon's character or that of his co-stars (his parents, principal, would-be wife, etc.) tend to be one-dimensional. I think this film could have been improved by occasional moments of self-reflection or doubt. As it is, Leon's character tends to come across as a quirky cartoon a lot of the time.

Still, as a light form of amusement, it works quite well.

I enjoyed The Trotsky, most of it anyway. I liked the fact that it doesn't take its audience as complete illiterate and assumes that you would catch some of the historic references. I prefer that than having everything spelled out for me. Jay Baruchel is just creepy enough, without becoming really scary in his obsession with being the real Leon Trotsky. I was rather uncomfortable with the relationship with Alexandra; that was one of the drawbacks of the movie. I loved the portrayal of Montreal with the English and the French intermingling in conversation and everyday life - even if it's not at all the main point of the movie. My main critic would go to Geneviève Bujold, who plays a commissioner of the school board, or something like that. I don't think I've ever seen such overacting before. She was awful. I always heard people say how she was a great actress, well, I did not see that here. I could not stop thinking how bad she was every time she was opening her mouth. Even every gesture she was making was over the top. Anyways, she doesn't have a huge role, so it didn't really spoil the movie. All in all, I enjoyed it and I would see it again.

I went to see the film with no preconceived notions, having read no reviews and seen no previews, other than the one-liner in the newspaper.

I laughed very often during this hour and a half, in a good sense. Maybe it's because I'm an iconoclast, and I love political conversations in general but I thoroughly enjoyed the film, from the very first moment to the very end.

Youth today are often accused of being apathetic and this is a recurring theme here. Other than the fact that the main character seems a bit loopy, he remains adorable and not cartoonish as the other commentator posted.

On comparing this teenage flic with others, as a mature adult, I must say I liked this 10x more than even the best teenage flics, save one or two, such as Juno. The director refrains from delving TOO deeply in politics and drama, BECAUSE it's a teen flic. IMO the exact right amount of political insight was included.

Other than the main character, we get to see a distinct progression in the students' level of interest and involvement in their own destinies. This, even more than apathy, may be our society's greatest challenge, to allow youth to take part in the political game, in order that youth may sense that there IS hope for our future.

Leon Bronstein (Jay Baruchel) is a gawky teen who idolizes Leon Trotsky and wants to unionize his father (Saul Rubinek)'s business. He hounds leftist lawyer Frank McGovern (Michael Murphy) unless he agrees to help. He meets older woman Alexandra Leith (Emily Hampshire). He is convinced that he is the reincarnation of Trotsky and she is Leon's first wife Aleksandra. Mocking his Trotsky reincarnation, his father takes him out of boarding school and put into a Montreal public high school. Principal Berkhoff (Colm Feore) runs a tight ship and they soon become adversaries. Leon needs to find his Lenin and joins the student union. He finds fascism in detention and tries to unionize his high school.

This is chalk full of charm. It's very cute with the awkward Jay Baruchel. He is adorably delusional. He's never annoying even though his character is stubbornly uncompromising. It could use a more comedic touch with the writing. The socialist references may go over most of the general public and it's not wacky enough for one of those crude teen comedies. It doesn't really fall into an easy category and it doesn't help that it is so laden with Canadiana. When it does go into wacky territories, it doesn't really do it in a LOL fashion. However its heart is in the right place and like Alexandra, one can't avoid the Leon storm and accept his insanity.