Excuse My French

One of my biggest regrets of attending last year's London Film Festival is skipping out on Excuse My French when it was my next screening. It's always refreshing to find rare films as an inflight movie. Despite the circumstances, Excuse My French is still a film with a great rhythmic energy, reminiscent of the auteur work of Wes Anderson and Jean-Pierre Jeunet. While this pace is kept up throughout the whole film, it's disappointing that it doesn't implement enough quirk or edge into its content. It brushes over clichés, albeit utilising them well, but not exploring them beyond archetypal necessity. Films that dive into school environments with such immersion and heightened fantasy are usually hit-and-miss for me, and this is both at the same time. Perhaps if I understood or related more to the Muslim/Christian tension in Egypt then the film's political themes could've resonated more, but it's entertaining and empathetic at the very least. Being different and pushed around is easy to relate to in any form and well executed here. With his idiosyncratic style, Amr Salama could easily give us a couple of great commercials before breaking through with a mainstream movie if he wished to do so.

7/10

I liked the film, it was super artsy and enjoyable, except for a couple of bits that felt cheesy (even with the context of satire). The musical choices and soundtrack were honestly exhausting and repetitive and had a very generic vibe, like stock music (I was very surprised to find out it was original).

I really liked the art directing and the cinematography, but the editing fell a little short for me, because some scenes felt dull (maybe it was the lack of music or intentional), but they kinda drag and bored me.

The final sound mixing of the film made it very uncomfortable to watch on a big screen. The sound levels were off and the general quality was poor (I understand it's an indie production but still).

Overall it was a nice experience and the storytelling was decent.

Inspite of I am Egyptian, i don't like Egyptian movies especially at the last 4 years except few of them,but this one is totally different from what Egypt used to produce last years. It is about a touchy issue in Egyptian community,the relationship between Muslims & Christians,the director choose the school children to deal with that issue demonstrating also the corruption in educational system in Egypt & the differences between private schools & governmental ones.He showed in a simple way that the religious persecution issue in Egypt is such a myth. The director used a new way in directing according to Egyptian cinema,if an American saw this movie he might think it is one of Wes Anderson movies, The same way in directing,same bright colors,same movement of camera, the centralization method of camera which Wes is famous with & even the music sounded like Wes movies. May some think it's copying,but I like it especially I'm a fan of Wes movies. The scenario was great & touchy & showed the characters feelings. The ending was brilliant showed Muslim & Christian are equal,you cant recognize them from each other in Egyptian community(when we discover at the end of the movie that the teacher we thought she is a Christian,discovered to be a Muslim),It showed that they are equal even in punishment at the end of the movie. This is one of Egyptian modern cinema finest & I support to produce more like that. 4 out of 5

You will laugh, cry, and feel every emotion in between.

Wonderfully entertaining. The acting was great as well, especially the boy who played Hang.

One thing I like about watching countries where there is a dominant belieft system is seeing how much remains the same even under various forms of ideological oppression. This reminds me of a Persian film where the presence of the mullahs is clear, yet most fo the problems of the main couple would be very familiar to Americans. Here we see a kid from a minority culture "passing" for a long time and the varied reactions of those around him, some rooted in predictable prejudice, some in embarassing good intentions, some universal to students everywhere. The film does have touches of quirk that justify the comparisons here to Wes Andersen, but it can also be read as a parable for any country where a minority must live - even sometimes chooses to live - within a dominant and even oppresive majority. It has a certain amount of humor and more than a little that is serious. It will probably upset some Americans' ideas of what Egypt is like (if they even have any), but it also has touches of "Karate Kid" and general coming of age movies. A bit drawn-out at times but unpredictable and even touching at others.