Foxfire 2012

Joyce Carol Oates' 1950s-set novel Foxfire is evocatively realised in Laurent Cantet's latest English-language work. Like the Cannes Palm d'Or winner The Class, he works with non-professionals to create a neo-realist tale, this time about a gang of small-town girls who use inventive guerrilla tactics to fight against the oppressive sexism of their era. But their rebellious, well-intentioned cause takes a darker turn once the gang falls on the wrong side of the law. Cantet's sympathetic working class creed is an ode to the rise of feminism.