Full Speed
Full Speed
| 25 September 1996 (USA)
Full Speed Trailers

A brief extract of four kids' lives somewhere in France. Quentin, who won a writers contest and now pays more attention to his career as an author than to his friends, beautiful Julie, his girl-friend, much more mature than she looks, falling in love with Quentin's very best friend Jimmy, who is kind of stuck in his unability of self-expression and grown up under bad social circumstances. And there is the shy boy Samir, exiled from Algeria, who lost his "brother" and only friend some time ago. Samir heavily falls in love with Quentin, but he can't handle it...

Reviews
Janae Milner Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.
Aneesa Wardle The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.
Yash Wade Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.
Skyler Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.
thesar-2 'Full Speed' is like 'Speed 2'; neither contained any sort of momentum. Perhaps I missed the boat on this one; sure, it was foreign, but it was very hard to follow. I guess there was this writer and some friends, some loved some, some were just loyal. It's labeled as a 'gay themed' movie and there was at least one gay person here, but it seemed like just a side character. For the most part, I was bored, waiting for that signature big-bad event that happens in almost all independent movies. When this one comes, no spoiler, it's so left-field it was hard to believe. Nothing really new here, nothing exciting. I seriously don't know how it got the title as slow as this was, but then again, like I said, I probably missed the boat. I've seen literally one hundred gay themed movies, including a multiple of foreign films. This does not rank anywhere in the top 90 of those. No one really to root for, no real character development. In fact, the acting in a lot of scenes was laughable. The funniest scene seems to be the most tragic: one character dies and all but does a 'Brady Bunch' death scene – so bad when his/her head hits the window that I was waiting for either the fake, studio audience laugh-track or "Oooohhh" to come. Since there was no real character to root for, no one that stood out as too evil or too good, it was all so ho-hum with very little direction. I see others giving this high ratings, and more power to them that they enjoyed it. Hopefully they'll realize there's dozens upon dozens better than this and move on to explore real visions of love and plight of gay characters.
december121531 Intersecting the lives of Arab youth in France, this film gives a brilliant portrayal of life and interpretations of young people in the region. The cast are beautiful and characters delicate. The lines are sturdy and the portrayals believable. I had hoped for more in the end, longing for a closure which never comes in life, and the intention by the director to give this sense is complete. I want more of their lives, as I have become attached to them in their sincerity and genuine qualities. I am left angrily in the middle, as an audience, wanting to mend the broken fences between what separates the distinct individuals of a society. I want the closure that will only come with peaceful and tolerable life. The closure that won't come, and yet which this film inspires an audience to covet. That which binds us to our humane selves.
uds3 Gael Morel is the purveyor of CRUEL INTENTIONS - French style. As with his earlier flick WILD REEDS (also with the services of the two leads here) its all about rebellious youth, angst and homophobia. At its core, a young French writer makes friends with a gay Algerian boy to give himself material and inspiration for a book he is writing.To non-Europeans however the detritus bequeathed France by the Algerian conflict is not a known or patriotically understood aspect of modern history and will lead to understandable confusion at much of the youthful confrontation.A passionately made film (know most everywhere as FULL SPEED) that just might overstep the sexual and class excesses it strives so hard to portray with earnest. Certainly a film to see and discuss - it just helps to be French!
CARLOS SARASOLA A sensitive film debut that tackles human relationships between 4 youngsters against the usual backdrop of Racism, Homophobia, Violence and Teenage unrest in modern multicultural France. Although it has and a quite nice photography, it resembles too much to its predecessor "Wild Reeds", a beautiful moving film by director Andre Techine. The four main characters are nearly a grown-up transcription of the ones' in Techine's film; the French countryside, the mixed feelings, the motorbike rides, the young intellectual-director's alter ego, the Algerian question,...nearly everything looks like a rework but in a less subtle and intelligent way. Nevertheless the film is worth to see, certainly if you liked "Wild Reeds", because of its gay sub-text (always exciting in French Cinema), the powerful performance of E.Bouchez and S.Rideau and the sensitive direction of Gael Morel. If you liked this film check "Les Terres froides" (just on French TV), "Presque Rien" and "Krampack", and not forget to watch "The Battle of Algiers" for a harsh realistic account of the events that lead to the independence of Algeria from France.