I Declare War Review

It's never entirely clear what Jason Lapeyre and Robert Wilson are trying to achieve with this trenchant but fatally contrived allegory, in which the war games of neighbourhood kids turn nasty. They boldly debunk the myth of idyllic suburban adolescence with the casual cruelty, racism, chauvinism and homophobia on display during a game of Capture The Flag. But the decision occasionally to replace the homemade weapons with real hardware is a major miscalculation that crucially crosses the line between hard-hitting critique and exploitation.