The scenery & cinematography are excellent, The location is Lausanne Switzerland & surrounding area & is just beautiful.The lead actor is a 20 year old HUNK,who thinks he is gay, He has affairs with men he meets on the Internet. He also has a boring job in a chocolate making factory.He is also in a platonic relationship with a lovely young female museum worker.These scenes are well written & acted & you would think you may be seeing a first rate film,There is even a discussion on a certain dangerous sex act, which is seldom mentioned in films & talked about this well. There are a few well handled male/male sex scenes.All of a sudden there is a change of pace, (an auto accident involving our hero) all the scenes seem to slow down, It is to me, as if the director did not know what to do next & the last part of the film crawls. The title is somewhat misleading as our hero is for from stupid, The acting is definitely first rate all the wayThe movie is only 95 minutes long, the first 55 minutes are fine , then it starts to crawl to the ending.Ratings **1/2 *(out of 4) 79 points* (out of 100) IMDb 7 (out of 10)* This just misses being a *** film, but still a mild thumbs up.,

Garcon Stupide (Stupid Boy) is an emotionally-packed punch. The film and it's lead character, Loic, had me hooked from the start. With the exception of a few slower scenes, I thoroughly enjoyed the film from start to finish. A few laughs, intense thought and emotion, and a few tears were generated from this well directed and acted film.The filming techniques and styles, and the soundtrack selections helped me score this film. The direction and unique filming combined with some classical scores and the storyline all fit perfectly together.The story itself follows the plight of Loic, a young handsome 20-year old who works in a chocolate factory by day, and entertains men of all ages by night for extra cash. In the film, he has a close loving friendship with a girl, Marie. He also develops a relationship of trust with a man he meets on the Internet, Lionel. The 2 never have sexual relations, just conversation about life. Something interesting to note: we never see Lionel. Or do we at the end? You decide.The story line develops around Loic's desires to be someone - a photographer, a gay man, ...? He seems to have lost direction in life, and is unable to trust/confide in the 2 people who seem to care for him most, Marie and Lionel. When Marie finds a boyfriend, you can clearly see the upset and anger in Loic. He withdraws from Marie, and Lionel, and neither situation has a positive outcome.In the meantime, he develops an infatuation of sorts with a local soccer player, who is successful, married and with child. Loic sees a life he wants for himself.Although this is a French film (with English subtitles), we have young people like Loic all over America. And we have adults who take advantage of them - and we have adults, like Lionel in this film, who truly can be a trusted friend. One of my favorite lines spoken by Lionel to Loic is "You can be interested in someone without wanting to f**k them". This statement rings true for so many, both those near the age of 20, and those near the age of 40.This is overall, an exceptional film - very good acting, great soundtrack, unique camera angles and film styles, wonderful story, and well-directed.

I don't see what justifies the rave reviews. Apart from the exposition, it came off fairly boring. Yes, Loic is enigmatic and incredibly attractive, and the film could have developed well based on that, but instead it wanders hopelessly after its first 20 minutes and becomes essentially 90% talk and 10% plot. That gets old fast. Even the few unusual "incidents" toward the end -- which I'd guess are there to provide a shock or epiphany -- seem pointlessly surreal.The director indulges a number of disconnected fetishes for no apparent purpose. What are we supposed to make of the recurring shots of the Alps, or the distressed and always-bandaged eyebrow piercing? If these are supposed to be symbolic of something about Loic, their meanings are far too obscure. If the writers intended to make us guess at these things, that's a tired, pretentious technique that I think ends up being merely annoying, not clever.

Whatever the merits of this film, and there are several, I find it most irritating that so much of it is filmed in close-up. It is like reading a text all in caps, with all sentences closed by an exclamation mark. At some point I got a headache. This is an relatively common fault with many indies regardless where they originate. Close-ups are used to highlight.... Use too much of it and it becomes tedious and levels the visual narrative.Otherwise, there are promising signs. There is an amiability to the project that makes one feel churlish in criticizing it. Particularly moving is the scene between Loïc and the soccer player. The most perceptive lines in the whole film are given to the soccer player. Perhaps one ought to suspend disbelief, enjoy happy-ends, and wish Mr. Baier, his actors and crew, good luck with their next endeavor..... and of course, that they place greater trust in longer distances between lens and object.