Delayed Reaction: If...

The Pitch: It's time to tear the British school system a new one.

Rebellious young men at a British boarding school cause trouble and fantasize about causing even more trouble.

It's purely coincidence that I watched this within a day of rewatching Heathers. I knew nothing about If... I'm not entirely sure how it ended up on my watchlist to begin with. I'm guessing a podcast recommended it at some point. I see that it won the Palm d'Or in 1968 which is kind of crazy. People would laugh at the idea of Heathers winning that award 20 years later even though it's thematically similar.

I'll go ahead and say that I didn't get a lot that this movie was doing. I read that the switching between color and black-and-white was part necessity and part choice. I don't understand those decisions though. Isn't it amateurish to say, color didn't look so good in certain locations, so we just switched to black-and-white? I didn't connect with a lot of the humor. I'm not sure if that's because it was too British in sensibility and context or if I'm missing something about that time period. I did like the dark humor that I did pick up on. I had trouble as well telling the real scenes apart from the fantasy ones. I get that it's supposed to be like that. But, like, what was the point of the scene with the naked teacher walking around?

Finally, I must say, it was deeply unsettling to see Malcolm McDowell that young. He should always have grey hair and wrinkles. At least when he shows up three years later in A Clockwork Orange he had makeup and weird costuming. Somehow, that was less unsettling.

Verdict: Weakly Don't Recommend