Sébastien Marnier | France | 2018 | 104 mins

R16 violence, suicide & content that may disturb

In his Venice-selected sophomore thriller, Sébastien Marnier sets his sights on a chilly class of gifted and talented students in the French countryside. After their teacher commits suicide during an exam, Pierre Hoffman (Laurent Lafitte) is called in as a long-term substitute. Expecting a class collectively reeling from this traumatic shock, Pierre is surprised to encounter a group of seemingly affectless mid-teens, mostly concerned with accelerating at an appropriate pace through their advanced-level courses.

His sense that something is askew only grows more acute when he notices a strange turn-the-other-cheek approach to physical violence—both from the students and his fellow faculty members. As Pierre spirals further into a wormhole that references both J.G. Ballard and Patti Smith, Marnier maintains a sense of creeping unease that expands into a chilling capitalist critique.
— Film Society at Lincoln Centre

School’s Out refuses to be pigeonholed into any cliché thriller framework. Instead, it defies every audience assumption by extending its narrative far beyond the walls of the prestigious private school, ultimately becoming a broader existential meditation on contemporary society. An exercise in slow, intentional build-up of philosophical dread, School’s Out is impossible to tear your eyes from and equally impossible to predict.
— Logan Taylor, Fantastic Fest 2018