The Hedgehog (2009) poster
2009 · comedy · drama · supernatural

The Hedgehog

Directed by Mona Achache1h 40m2009
ElsewhereIMDb7.310kRT88%Metacritic64
  • measured
  • gentle
  • tender
  • intimate
Movie DNA

Neutral, measured, gentle comedy / drama, grounded in texture. Ambivalent, intimate, tender, hand-scored across twelve axes of taste.

How every film is hand-scored →

Paloma is a serious and highly articulate but deeply bored 11-year-old who has decided to kill herself on her 12th birthday. Fascinated by art and philosophy, she questions and documents her life and immediate circle, drawing trenchant and often hilarious observations on the world around her. But as her appointment with death approaches, Paloma finally meets some kindred spirits in her building's grumpy janitor and an enigmatic, elegant neighbor, both of whom inspire Paloma to question her rather pessimistic outlook on life.

Our read · The Hedgehog (2009) reads as a neutral, measured, grounded comedy · drama · supernatural entry — gentle in intensity, intimate in scope, tender in temperature, ambivalent in outlook. Hand-scored on twelve axes of taste — mood, pacing, weirdness, hope, stakes, humour, reality, density, warmth, auteur, intensity, and era — with a derived palette drawn from its dominant cinematography.

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The shape of The Hedgehog

Tonight, this looks like

What watching it is actually like.

You want prickly Parisian souls finding beauty beneath precocious despair.

ends warmyou’ll feel glowing aftera slow buildgrips by minute 14attention 4/5earns its lengthsubtitles: full
Date nightWith friendsSoloWith parentsKids around
Heads-upsuicide themechild perilanimal harm

Skip it tonightSkip if a child's suicidal plan and subtitled philosophy feel too heavy.

DNA · twelve axes

The reading.

Each axis is hand-scored — not derived from votes or genre averages. The marker shows where this film sits; the gradient fill uses the film's own cinematography palette.

Mood · HeavyCosy
Pacing · Slow-burnKinetic
Intensity · GentleExtreme
Weirdness · ConventionalSurreal
Hope · NihilisticRedemptive
Stakes · IntimateEpic
Humour · NoneBroad
Reality · GroundedFantastical
Density · SparseTwisty
Warmth · ColdTender
Auteur · TransparentSignature
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