In ‘Being 17,’ the best thing is the setting

[...] the result is a beautiful void, a structureless emptiness buoyed by some good scenes and performances.

The shots of the hills and vistas covered in snow or mist, or radiant in the spring light, are quite beautiful and confer an aura of importance on everything that might be taking place between the characters.

Thomas works hard on his family’s tiny farm and comes from less prosperous circumstances than Damien, and so, in the movie’s peculiar moral scheme, this seems to justify every weird, angry thing he might do.

Sandrine Kiberlain, one of France’s finest actresses, plays Damien’s mother, the village doctor, who is married to a career army pilot who’s away half the time.

Techine and Sciamma devise a series of incidents that hint in a variety of directions, some of which pan out, some of which feel random.

Ultimately, there’s a sense of just one thing after another, linked only by an overarching aura of portent that the characters themselves seem to be complicit in.

[...] as always in a Techine movie, there are entire sections that arrest attention, and there’s even something to be said for the meandering structure, in that it creates a lived-in quality, as though we’re just hanging out with the characters without any expectation that they’ll entertain us.

Mick LaSalle is The San Francisco Chronicle’s movie critic.