The Kid with a Bike (2012)
87%RT Audience Score: 76%
Awards & Nominations: 9 wins & 31 nominations
Thanks to the Dardenne brothers’ typically fine direction, The Kid with a Bike is a heart-wrenching, thematically and spiritually rich drama
The Kid with a Bike is a heart-wrenching tale of a boy searching for love and belonging, all while riding around on his trusty bicycle. The Dardenne brothers’ directing is so subtle and masterful that you won’t even realize how much it’s affecting you until the credits roll. It’s like a magic trick, but instead of pulling a rabbit out of a hat, they’re pulling tears out of your eyes. And honestly, who needs a rabbit when you have a movie this good?
Production Company(ies)
Focus Features, Anonymous Content This Is That Productions,
Distributor
IFC Films
Release Type
Filming Location(s)
Oupeye, Liège, Wallonia, Belgium
MPAA / Certificate
Rated PG-13 for thematic elements, violence, brief language and smoking
Year of Release
2011
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Color:Color
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Sound mix:Dolby Digital
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Aspect ratio:1.85 : 1
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Runtime:1h 27m
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Language(s):French
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Country of origin:United States
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Release date:Release Date (Theaters): Mar 16, 2012 Limited
Release Date (Streaming): Feb 12, 2013
Genre(s)
Drama
Keyword(s)
Worldwide gross: $7,011,798
Worldwide gross (inflation-adjusted): $9,231,017
Worldwide gross ranking (inflation-adjusted): 1,990
Worldwide tickets sold (est.): 1,006,654
US/Canada gross: $1,470,000
US/Canada gross (inflation-adjusted): $1,935,252
US/Canada gross ranking (inflation-adjusted): 2,042
US/Canada opening weekend: $45,933
US/Canada opening weekend (inflation-adjusted): $60,471
US/Canada opening weekend ranking (inflation-adjusted): 2,136
Budget and Earnings Details
Production budget (est.): NA
Production budget (inflation-adjusted): NA
Production budget ranking: NA
Marketing and distribution budget (inflation-adjusted est.): NA
Box office net earnings to date (inflation-adjusted est.): NA
ROI to date (est.): NA
ROI ranking: NA
Jérémie Renier – Guy Catoul
Fabrizio Rongione – Le libraire
Olivier Gourmet – Le patron du bar
Thomas Doret – Cyril Catoul
Egon Di Mateo – Wes
Jean-Pierre Dardenne – Director, Writer, Producer
Luc Dardenne – Director, Writer, Producer
Denis Freyd – Producer
Director(s)
Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Luc Dardenne
Writer(s)
Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Luc Dardenne, Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Luc Dardenne
Producer(s)
Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Luc Dardenne, Denis Freyd
Film Festivals
Awards & Nominations
9 wins & 31 nominations
Academy Awards
All Critics (133) | Top Critics (50) | Fresh (128) | Rotten (5)
The directing by the Dardenne brothers reflects their previous work: it wants to be unnoticed either for virtuosity or clumsiness, yet only virtuosos can attain this ideal.
June 18, 2013
Stanley Kauffmann
The New Republic
TOP CRITIC
There is not a wasted shot in this stripped down, pared back fable. Yet, it accrues a deep and lasting power. You won’t see many better this year.
January 7, 2013
Tom Charity
CNN.com
TOP CRITIC
Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne make great movies with such regularity they can be easy to overlook, but The Kid With a Bike puts just enough spin on the Dardennes’ formula to let you feel their worth anew.
May 3, 2012 | Rating: A-
Sam Adams
Philadelphia City Paper
TOP CRITIC
How the Dardennes, time and again, turn gritty, mundane subjects into transcendent moments of honesty and truth is one of the great cinematic wonders.
April 13, 2012 | Rating: 4/5
Marjorie Baumgarten
Austin Chronicle
TOP CRITIC
This is a film that’s not always easy to watch, but just about impossible to forget.
April 13, 2012 | Rating: 3.5/4
Calvin Wilson
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
TOP CRITIC
“The Kid With a Bike” vibrates with desperation, frustration and the simple unfairness of life, leavened with glimpses of hope.
March 30, 2012 | Rating: A-
Tom Long
Detroit News
TOP CRITIC
The Dardennes have always been true humanists, finding the good in criminals and fuck-ups and outsiders. The Kid with a Bike is undoubtedly a part of that tradition.
March 16, 2021
David Bax
Battleship Pretension
Just when I thought I comfortably settled in the world of the likes of Godard, Denis and Weerasethakul, the Belgian neo-realists the Dardenne Bros’ The Kid with a Bike floors me and humbles me to appreciate the power of simple narrative once more.
February 28, 2021
Dustin Chang
Floating World
For a film that is as heartbreaking and real as The Kid with a Bike, the Dardennes do not strike one false note.
November 8, 2019 | Rating: 4/5
David Harris
Spectrum Culture
Result(s) in a huge emotional payoff that resonates more deeply than its sparse elements might suggest.
August 6, 2019 | Rating: 3.5/4
Mattie Lucas
From the Front Row
A whir of energy that documents, as its elemental Dardennian title would suggest, the story of a boy using a bike as a conduit to find some parental care and affection.
March 16, 2019 | Rating: 4/5
PJ Nabarro
Patrick Nabarro
Doret’s superb turn as Cyril may be the closest European cinema has come to finding an Antoine Doinel (the iconic star of François Truffaut’s 1959 classic The 400 Blows) for the 21st century.
January 4, 2019 | Rating: 4/5
Daniel Green
CineVue…
Plot
Abandoned by his father, a young boy named Cyril begins to act out in anger, but finds hope and kindness in his caretaker Samantha in the heart-wrenching drama, The Kid with a Bike.
Trivia
Goofs / Tidbits
NA
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