Frédéric Hambalek’s dark but hilarious film about a teen with telepathic powers feels designed to make parents wince.

A lot of the comedy and absurdism of the film’s starting point gets lost. Well, it could be that the whole point of the film isn’t that Marielle’s powers are special, but that they are universal -- or almost.

What Marielle Knows is basically a high-concept social experiment designed to prove how our private lives are probably best kept private. It’s not a groundbreaking idea, but the film uses its clever conceit to remind us how important that is.

The result is a suggestive but muted work, sustained by brilliant scenes and a lucid intuition: unmediated truth can be a form of violence. [Full review in Spanish]