EIFF 2016: Kids in Love

The only thing these kids, played by Will Poulter, Alma Jodorowsky, Jamie Blackley and Cara Delevingne, seem to be in love with is their own sense of entitlement

Film Review by Michelle Devereaux | 22 Jun 2016
Film title: Kids in Love
Director: Chris Foggin
Starring: Will Poulter, Alma Jodorowsky, Jamie Blackley, Cara Delevingne

Kids in Love has all the power and poignancy of a 90-minute Tommy Hilfiger ad, although the latter might be preferable considering it wouldn’t have speaking parts. Fitting, then, that the film’s highest-profile star is supermodel-turned-actor Cara Delevingne, in a bit part suitably described as mise en scène candy.

Alma Jodorowsky (Parisian-born granddaughter of the great Chilean auteur Alejandro, who would despise this film) is the main object of cinematic affection here. After Jack (Will Poulter) spies Jodorowsky’s Evelyn walking down the street in cut-off short-shorts while he’s canvassing for charity, she coyly invites him to a local bar. Fresh out of school and meandering through his life during a gap year, Jack tentatively accepts and is soon plunged into the bohemian existence of pretty young Londoners without much in the way of occupation aside from being pretty, although sometimes they’re also faux-profound. 


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Of course Jack immediately falls for Evelyn, because she’s so coy and mysterious, and look at those short-shorts. Problem is, Evelyn has a boyfriend who also happens to be a pimp. But that’s okay, because for some inexplicable reason Evelyn seems enamoured with Jack, as does everyone in her pampered and annoying coterie. The dialogue is peppered with lines about how great Jack is, but the more the film tells us so, the more obvious it is that he’s nothing but a cipher himself: bland, boring and permanently bewildered.

Evelyn is no better; Jodorowsky plays her dead-eyed and resigned, as if a manic pixie dream girl type realised one day that she could just coast on her model-good looks. First-time director Chris Foggin seems to be going for a vibe of dreamy romanticism, but what he comes up with feels more like a Less Than Zero photo spread for a millennial clothing catalogue. (Not to belabour the point, but this really is movie-as-model-shoot.) The bottom line: the only thing these 'kids' seem to be in love with is their own sense of entitlement. 

Kids in Love screens at Cineworld, 22 Jun, 6.10pm & 24 Jun, 6.10pm


EIFF runs 15-26 Jun http://edfilmfest.org.uk