13 (Tzameti)

"13 (Tzameti)" ("Contestant 13") is the first film by a 26-year-old director (Gela Babluani) that feels like the worst of what a 26-year-old director could make. Protagonist Sebastien (Georges Babluani) is a poor immigrant capable of sustaining a single facial expression for 90 minutes. His pouty, glazed look is designed to express the accumulated sadness of a youth wasted on hard labor, but it's also dull enough to suggest he is incapable of warmth and intelligence. So when our Cinderella is propelled from a routine roofing job into a fairy tale, we don't really care that it may save his impoverished family.

The treasure hunt that should keep us on the edge of our seats is only a predictable testosterone-fueled fantasy. Found train tickets, keys in station lockers and calls from pay phones are the stuff of 13-year-old dreams, as is the tired dialogue that accompanies.

These actors move with the labored blocking of a high school play, staring out of windows feeling trapped, cutting their hair when hungering for change. The choice to film in black-and-white feels like a last-ditch attempt to inflect just another action movie with the grace and gravitas of a film noir, as if "13 (Tzameti)" was the product of a college student too shamed before artsy friends to admit he'd rather be making a Hollywood blockbuster.

-- Adriane Quinlan (Aug. 25, 2006)

Contains profanity, violence, gore and adult themes. In French with English subtitles.