James Alexis Just a warning to those who are disturbed by seeing clips of actual murder, actual abuse against women and a bunch of other violent and graphic imagery. All of this appears in the first few minutes of the movie when the Ezra Miller character is surfing videos on the internet mostly graphic violence including real clips of murder and then lands on some porn showing a young woman being intentionally and extensively humiliated and then choked in what is obviously a more than she bargained for aspect of the clip which ends with the actual sex act. There is other fictionalized stuff that is disturbing later on but the first few minutes alone would make this movie unwatchable to most people. This unfortunately was on my cable company's on-demand menu without any warnings as to its extremely disturbing content.

brownjackie As noted by many, Afterschool is one in a bunch of teen death films, but that doesn't necessarily make it unoriginal or plot less. Afterschool does have a developing plot, but its visual side IS unoriginal. Many mention Van Sant's Elephant (2003), - personally I thought of Michael Haneke many times, especially his Benny's Video (1992), which is thematically similar and also must have been a visual inspiration for Afterschool. I do think that director Campos has succeeded in getting formidable performances out of his actors, especially Ezra Miller, who portrays adolescent depression and bewilderment forcefully, and Michael Stuhlbarg as the principal. With Afterschool, he has made one of the most depressing films American cinema has ever produced (that I've seen). EVERYTHING is wrong in the world portrayed in this film, and especially adults are univocally idiotic and destructive, they are hypocrites, mean, egotistic, inhumane, and/or stupid. It's almost as frustrating to watch as The Death of Mr. Lazarescu (2005), (grueling death realism for 150 minutes in Romania), but not as brilliant. I generously give 7 stars to Afterschool, because I am a huge Ezra Miller-fan, but be advised:This movie is very nearly impossible to love.

garyd9 I'll try to make this short and sweet. The movie is slow and boring, but worst of all - it's irritating. The director tries to get cute with the camera and it just doesn't work - you spend most of the movie just trying to figure out who is saying what. (I've seen movies with innovative camera work - this is not one of them.) The plot is murky...there's no resolution to the story. SPOILER: you think the main character maybe killed one of the girls by suffocating her with a hand over her mouth, but you can't really be sure. SPOILER: if you pay attention to the dialog, you could even think his roommate may have killed them both inadvertently by trying to "drug" them for ulterior motives (early in the film, the main character suggests to his roommate - the drug dealer - that he could drug them; further support for this theory is: since his roommate was selling drugs all over the school...how come the 2 girls are the only ones who died? Why would the doses the girls bought contain rat poisoning, but other doses he sold did not?) - but again, you just can't really tell if that is what happened. 'Sorry - but I really dislike a movie where you basically know less about what happened in it AFTER you've watched it.I also have to agree with the reviewers here who said the memorial video created by the main character was NOT insightful and honest, but just inappropriate and plain stupid (now that I think about it - it was a lot like the movie it's a part of).Finally, I just want to point out an error in another review here, where the reviewer refers to a scene with students lining up and taking pills by saying "...all the students are now given daily doses of pills..." suggesting that the students were all given drugs daily as a reaction to the drug overdose deaths.In the first place, had the reviewer paid a bit more attention: there is an almost identical scene earlier in the movie - well BEFORE the girls die.Secondly, it's a common practice in most boarding schools that students are not allowed to keep and take their own prescription drugs...they have to go to the school clinic at the proper times to receive them.This prevents abuse and/or selling of prescription drugs, while helping to lower school liability in case a student is not taking their prescribed drugs when they're supposed to. That's what that scene (and the earlier similar scene) was about - NOT a repressive school system forcing students to take drugs for their own good!I guess I can't blame that reviewer for missing that - this movie is very easy to misunderstand. Very little of it is very clear.

teg5037 Critics who have been comparing Campos to Kubrick and Van Sant must owe him a favor.This film was not the worst movie I have ever seen,it just could of been so much better. I did not mind the slow pace. I did not mind any of the acting,it just didn't deliver with the story. I thought this movie was building up to some climax that I wouldn't see coming: *SPOILER* it doesn't. *SPOILER* Sure, it showed him possibly choking out one of the twins, but I had more expectations that. *SPOILER* Why didn't he rat out his douche bag roommate for possibly supplying the drugs, or why didn't he rat out the school after the counselor told him that the school knew the twins were drug fiends and had problems. Also, *SPOILER* the memorial video he made was stupid. It really was. I thought it would of been better if he exposed the twins as druggies and somehow managed to pile in information to show that the school knew and didn't do anything about it. Instead, it was a horrible clip of people staring, almost like he was stalking them . Like I said before, I didn't mind the slow pace, but Jesus, it's gotta build to something. Some positives about this film were how they showed the curiosity of teenagers and sex, how Campos took a modern direction with twisted teens in today's society and technology, and how awkward it can be to live with a roommate you hate.Ill finish off with saying this: If you find yourself halfway through this movie and you are not enjoying it, do yourself a favor and turn it off...you won't miss anything.