Les Choristes

Nominated for two Academy Awards, and winner of none, Les Choristes is something of a standard Hollywood tale (think Mr. Holland’s Opus or Sister Act or Dangerous Minds, only with French people and therefore the stink of defeat). At a school for juvenile delinquents, a new supervisor arrives and lifts the downtrodden children out of their life of crime by teaching them to sing and to have big, beautiful eyes. There’s a lot of stock characters, including the obligatory evil principal who acts as the standard authority figure. And there’s lots of lovely music, and then there’s some good feelings, and the joy of watching a French movie, combined with the professional surety of watching a Hollywood-style film. I guess it’s the best of all possible worlds.