Cadets of St. Martin: A heavy, old-school gut punch

Is it worth the time?

If you have a thing for heavy, black-and-white melodrama that doesn't pull any punches, sure. It’s definitely not for anyone looking for a breezy Friday night watch. You’ll probably hate it if you need your characters to be likeable or if you’re allergic to stuffy institutional settings. 🏛️

There’s this particular scene early on—the way the father’s office looks right before everything collapses. It feels so claustrophobic. You can practically smell the stale cigar smoke and the panic in the air.

The weight of the uniform

The whole school thing... it’s all about the stiff collars and the posture. Everyone is standing so straight it hurts to watch. It reminds me a bit of the suffocating social pressure you see in The Bad Genius, though the tone here is way more somber.

When the kid gets kicked out, the camera just lingers on his face. It’s not even a big dramatic breakdown. He just looks kind of empty. It’s way more effective than a bunch of screaming and crying.

• The dialogue is sharp, maybe a bit too pointed at times.
• The hallway lighting in the Lyceum is strangely ominous.
• Héctor Calcaño is doing a lot of work with just his eyebrows.

The suicide scene. It happens so fast. One second there’s a conversation, the next, the room feels different. It’s messy, and it doesn't try to be poetic. It’s just blunt.

Honestly, the pacing gets a little wobbly in the middle. There’s a stretch where they keep repeating the same point about the company’s guilt, and I found myself checking my watch. We get it, the dad was a crook. Can we move on to the fallout?

It’s not a perfect movie, but it has this weird, heavy gravity to it. It stays with you for an hour after the credits roll, even if you’re not entirely sure why. Maybe it’s just the sheer gloom of the thing. 🎞️

It definitely lacks the snappy energy of something like Just Imagine, but that’s obviously not what they were going for. It’s a bit of a slog, but a meaningful one.