Film Review: After School

June 11, 2008 A taut and ironic hustler movie that keeps turning the tables on the audience, "After School" requires mental concentration to disentangle the web of deceit surrounding three middle school alumni and the private eye who comes between them under the watchful eyes and iron fists of the yakuza. Approaching his screenplay just like he's planning the perfect heist, Uchida has constructed a plot so dense that every scene or casual cutaway holds the key to a dramatic reversal, and every character is a pawn that could turn into a Queen. In this micro-managed, cerebral world, there is little room for character development or authentic emotions. Or so the audience is led to assume, until the denouement reveals that life's biggest jinx may be to make assumptions about people and let experience and cynicism erode the simple values taught at school.

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