Block Pass

Jojo and Willy grew up in a small town in western France and have been inseparable since childhood. Jojo races motocross and wants to turn professional. Then something about Willy gets around the town: it becomes known that he is gay. What follows is what that means in a place where everyone knows everyone. Antoine Chevrollier directs, in his first feature. Amaury Foucher plays Jojo and Sayyid El Alami plays Willy. It was shot in and around Longué-Jumelles, Chevrollier's own home town. That decision gives the film its texture: the track is real, the town is real, and the faces in the crowd are local. The title is a motocross term, the move where a rider cuts inside another to take a corner. The friendship is built exactly that way. The narrative does not centre Willy's story. It proceeds through Jojo, and its real question is how much you will risk for a friend at the cost of losing everyone around you. It premiered in Critics' Week at Cannes on 20 May 2024 and was nominated for the Queer Palm, and won the audience award and best actor at the Angers festival. Who it is for: viewers who like French provincial drama and stories about adolescence. Who it is not for: the story takes a sudden turn in the second half and several strands are left unfinished.