New Boy Critique

1) Provide a brief description of the film.
The film was about a young black boy, Joseph, who recently enrolled in a new school.  At the school he is bullied by a boy throughout the class, but the teacher ignores it.  Occasionally, the film flashes back to Joseph's past life in Africa, where his father was teacher and Joseph was a good student.  However, we learn that Joseph's father was murdered by militants.  During recess, back in the present, milk is thrown at Joseph and the other boy's attempt to start a fight.  However, Joseph stands stall and stares down the bully, acting without violence.  The teacher then has a talk with the three boys, only to be interrupted by a young girl named Hazel.  Hazel tries to tell the teacher that the boys had been bullying Joseph and Joseph did nothing wrong.  But the teacher dismisses Hazel, and Hazel talks back, causing the class and the three boys, including Joseph and the bully, to laugh together at the problems Hazel is causing.


2) What is the overall tone or mood of the film?
The beginning starts with a somewhat isolated and afraid feeling.  It progresses into resentment for the bully and sympathy for Joseph.  While watching the flashbacks and seeing Joseph's past life, we understand what Joseph went through, adding even more to the sympathetic mood towards Joseph.  The film ends on a happy note, where we see Joseph and the bully can now relate, and hopefully coincide together in the future.


3) How does the dialog influence the film?
Dialogue affected greatly.  When in the new school, Joseph rarely talks.  He is quiet and the only people talking are those around him.  However, when we see the flashbacks, he is talking and smiling quite a lot.  This shows he once was comfortable, and understand why he is quite.  At the end, we see Joseph smile and speak.  The mere fact Joseph spoke showed he was comfortable with the situation and can find joy in life, even with the loss of his father.


4) In what ways does the cinematography affect the film?
The cinematography was not a major factor.  Some shots of the teacher yelling at the student, where a students head was one corner of the shot, made it feel like as if the audience were the students sitting in the rows.  Other than that, nothing jumped out.


5) What scene or part of a scene do you like the best? Why?
My favorite scene was where the bully was trying to fight Joseph at recess.  We had just seen that Joseph's father was killed, and now the bully is trying to pick a fight with Joseph.  Yet Joseph stands tall and looks the bully in the eye.  He looked at him with the look of "Yeah, I've seen stuff you will never ever see."  The stare was empowering and stopped the bully in his attempt to start a fight.


6) What is your opinion of the film?
I liked it.  It's not something I would watch again.  But it was a interesting story, one that people should see, but not more than once.  I had a problem with the ending as it was cliché and did not seem logical.  Somehow, the students magically became friends and the racist bully was nice.  Just wasn't believable for me.  However, I do recommend it as it does show the effects of events going in Sierra Leone and militants rising against their governments in Africa.