Block Pass

You can almost smell the mixture of sweat and Lynx body spray leaping from the screen from the start of Antoine Chevrollier’s dive into the testosterone-fuelled world of teenagers Jojo (Amaury Foucher) and Willy (Sayyid El Alami).

The childhood friends are both motorbike-mad, although Jojo is by far the more devil-may-care of the two, with Willy more introverted. Their difference is also reflected in their look, with Jojo sporting a bleach blonde do, the polar opposite of Willy’s darker hair. It’s an indicator of a film that is all big moods and opposing forces - individuality against the collective, parental desire versus that of their children, nurturing camaraderie against toxic masculinity. The block pass of the film’s English language title, refers to an attempted overtaking manoeuvre, where you come up on the inside of an opponent and steal the racing line - and for all that Chevrollier’s film contains some excellent racing sequences, the psychological jockeying for position is surely what is being referred to.

Willy and Jojo’s lives revolve around the La Pampa bike track, although emotions are churning in the background thanks to their fathers - once also bosom buddies who built the place but, in the spirit of those contrasts the film is built on, one is still alive and the other dead. Jojo’s father (Damien Bonnard) rides his son almost as hard as the youngster rides his bike, determined that he should win an upcoming championship. Willy, meanwhile, is still churning with grief in the wake of the death of his father ten years before, refusing to accept his mum (Florence Janas) is embarking on a new chapter of her life with her boyfriend (Mathieu Demy).

That the boys are brother-close is emphasised when Willy discovers Jojo has a secret, it's not the revelation that bothers him but rather the fact that he hid it at all. Willy’s acceptance is, unsurprisingly, in contrast to the reaction of others in the small town where they live, who need little impetus to turn on anyone who isn’t conforming to their expectations. Chevrollier captures the amplified mood of teenagehood, reflected in the bright colours of the motocross outfits and the warmth of the French sun and dirt soil as it’s lensed by Benjamin Roux. The script from Chevrollier, co-writing with Bérénice Bocquillon and Faïza Guène also captures the rat-a-tat of teenage interaction.

Meanwhile, the small-town mentality is also emphasised by the reaction of student Marina (Léonie Dahan-Lamort). She offers a spark of different possibility for Willy and a wider perspective on a trip back from uni in Angers, which sees her treated almost like an alien lifeform by many of those who have never left their hometown of Longue.

This is a film about choices - whether to get stuck in that rut or speed off on your own racing line. These aren’t easy decisions to make and Block Pass maintains a complex mixture of emotions across the generations, while never holding back on the throttle of his story’s pace so that it is likely to prove an exhilarating but surprisingly soul-searching ride for viewers of the same age as its protagonists.