GAMMA RAYS
(The 2025 Vashon Island Film Fest runs August 7-10 on beautiful Vashon Island, just a ferry ride from Seattle. HtN has coverage coming your way like this Gamma Rays movie review by Alan Motley! Seen it? Join the conversation with HtN on our Letterboxd Page.)
Gamma Rays (Les Rayons gamma), directed and co-written by Henry Bernadet, straddled the line between fiction and documentary. This dramedy followed young, non-professional actors from immigrant communities in Montreal’s Villeray–Saint-Michel–Parc-Extension neighborhood, offering a portrait of youth that felt lived-in and unforced.
The film wove together three interlocking stories: Abdel’s quiet life was upended by the arrival of his extroverted cousin, who stayed for the summer. Fatima, starting a new job as a supermarket cashier, craved the stability she’d never had. Toussaint, while fishing, found a bottle washed up on the shore with a message inside. Bernadet’s camera moved with ease between these threads, letting everyday interactions and unguarded moments shape the narrative instead of forcing them.
For me, it was reminiscent of Larry Clark’s KIDS — not in shock value, but in the unvarnished way it captured youth. Both films give you the feeling of tagging along, overhearing inside jokes, awkward pauses, and half-formed dreams of young people on the edge of something undefined. Where KIDS often felt like a collision course, Gamma Rays was gentler, grounded in the warmth of small human connections. It captured the fragile mix of uncertainty and hope that comes with being young — the way a summer can feel like a lifetime, and a single conversation can leave an imprint that lasts for years.
In the end, Gamma Rays proved to be a soft yet potent portrait of migration, friendship, and the fleeting magic of summer connection. It didn’t shout its message; it lingered, like the afterglow of an August evening when you’re not quite ready for the night to end.
– Alan Motley (@alanmotley)
Post a Comment
