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AVA

Léa Mysius France, 2017
[H]er debut feature is as assured as they come – a heady, often surreal and sometimes disturbing exploration of adolescence, delinquency and burgeoning sexuality.
December 23, 2017
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Seventh Row
Léa Mysius’ invigorating debut uses the onset of blindness both as a source of genuine drama and as a conduit for the broader theme of growing up.
October 12, 2017
The plot runs away with itself a little at the end, but this is not unusual in a debut feature and there is so much to love in Mysius' film. From the thumping drums and eerie atonality of the interstitial soundtrack to the blasts of Europop and soul, it sounds as good as it looks, and it looks very good indeed on 35mm film. The very last shot is the first shot where we see Ava break into a full smile as she drives off into her future, and it's a smile you will feel like sharing.
October 4, 2017
The film masterfully handles its tonal shifts from irreverent coming of age comedy to something approaching an impressionistic tale of criminality with ease.
October 2, 2017
A film about how the onset of blindness in a thirteen-year-old girl heightens the acuity of her other senses, Ava is as stirring as it is macabre.
September 19, 2017
A teenage coming-of-age tale full of twists and in possession of a weird rebellious spirit much like its idiosyncratic 13-year-old loner protagonist... Mysius, shooting with cinematographer Paul Guilhaume on 35mm, makes full use of its texture and saturated colours. Indeed, blackness is a frequent motif, including the black dog that Ava steals to be her companion.
June 2, 2017
Compared to, say, Marielle Heller's recent American indie The Diary of a Teenage Girl or, to go back several years, Catherine Breillat's Fat Girl (2001), this lacks moral nuance and complexity, but Mysius' technique is unquestionably stylish and confident, and she coaxes strong performances from inexperienced and seasoned cast alike. Shot on increasingly rare 35mm stock by DP and co-screenwriter Paul Guilhaume, the film at least has a visual luster, intense palette and tactile quality.
May 20, 2017
Right up to the slightly unsatisfying ending, "Ava" is both a complex character portrait and a heartsore farewell to the ephemeral images that will be among the last she sees. But the movie is also, in a way, a tribute to shooting on film, which already feels like an act of radical nostalgia. These are the last wild flickers before darkness.
May 20, 2017
Stylistic impact notwithstanding, the film is unbalanced by aimless plotting and queasy questions about the sexualisation of a vulnerable child protagonist. Although it's the latest in the À Bout de Souffle ‘hail of bullets' tradition of Gallic doomed romance, Ava bucks the trend by following a central character who is resolutely impenetrable and thus somewhat difficult to care about.
May 19, 2017