Athena

As "Athena" (2022 release from France; 99 min) opens, a guy of Algerian descent announces at a police station that his younger brother, just 13 yo, has died resulting from police brutality, and that the police is investigating who is responsible. The guy urges for calm. But before we know it, someone throws a Molotov cocktail into the police station, and it sets into motion the looting of the police station... At this point we are less than 10 min into the movie. Couple of comments: this is the latest from French director Romain Gavros, best known for shooting edgy music videos. Here Gavros brings the fictional tale of a suburban (filmed in a Paris banlieue) uprising following yet another instance of police brutality. While fictional, it feels all too familiar of course. Heads up: the opening sequence that lasts about 10 minutes is insanely intense, and... brought in a single take. In fact the long takes are a recurring feature in the film (I honestly don't know how some of these shots are even possible). The movie's tension is palpable from the get-go and really doesn't let up. The no-names cast is quite good, in particular the main character Abdel, played by French-Algerian actor Dali Bensallah. Bottom line: this revenge crime drama grabbed my attention from start to finish. But if intensive and over the top violence is not your thing, better stay away. "Athena" premiered earlier this month at the Venice film festival to positive buzz. It started airing on Netflix this weekend. After seeing a positive write-up in Friday's New York Times, I just had to check it out. Glad I did. If you are in the mood for a very intense revenge crime drama set in a French banlieue, I'd readily suggest you check this out and draw your own conclusion.

So here we are, 2022. Witnessing one more attempt of delivering cool images based on immigration, mafia, the barrio, rebeu culture. As expected from the director it is all hollow aesthetics (I really wanted it to prove me wrong). But this is not a M. I. A. Video, it is a full length film. Considering the fashion and hipster culture industries predation on these topics and especially this banlieue thing for so long now, it feels greatly outdated even for a music video. It is all formulaic, maybe it could work as background visuals for a club I would not like to be partying in. But that's about it. Do not waste your precious time on this fashion commercial from 2012. Probably Netflix thought having Gavras would make their catalogue seem cooler. It just does not.

The story: RIOTS EXPLODE in the suburbs of Paris when a young French man gets KILLED by the police. Friends and family demand to know which police officer killed their brother and they will riot until their demand is met. This movie is one long BATTLE between French youth in the suburbs of Paris and the police. It's shot in a war style kind of way, with claustrophic scenes of contineous, intense FIGHTiNG inside and outside of crumbling, highrise appartment buildings in these poor French neighbourhoods. The intensity of this story is FIERCE. It just doesnt light up. The acting performances are on STEROIDS, with a constant crazed drive in the eyes of the leading characters, who are out of control by RAGE because of the fact that their friend and brother got KILLED by the police. The photography is a constant WAVE of rushes of ATTACKS through narrow streets and corridors, often filmed on the back of rioters, who are being followed in close up, while fireworks are constantly exploding all around them, which makes this movie even more intense. The sound score is as CLAUSTROPHOBIC and intense as the photography. This movie has got the look and feel of a real live WAR documentary. It's contineous adrenaline RUSH is breathtaking. I tried to find out if this story was actually based on real events, but I could not find any information about it in detail. I will add details later on if I find out more about this story... What makes watching this movie so breathtakingly painful and worrisome is that many similar riots have occurred in France over the last 15 years. Suburban French youth, living in poverty, get to bear the burden of constant police control and harassment, which sometimes results in random deaths of which this movie is a SHIVERING tale...

We can all appreciate the nice visuals, the camera moves, the nice plays with the lights, the clothes and the place. But too numerous are the drawbacks that come to corrupt the whole movie, and especially when it comes to the content of it. The acting is very disturbing, sometimes a bit too far from natural reactions, too focused on the script, too played like in theatres not enough realistic as a true movie needs. As for the content, that's a very checkered issue to showcase that, it says a lot on what these directors want and imagine - a war. That's true to say that there is such a conflict between youngsters from the French hood and police as La Haine showed before, but the dimension is exaggerated, staging these youngsters as true warriors, beating the asses of police which is as we all know not the case - American gang movies know it perfectly. Briefly, that's a bit awkward to see that, especially when you grow up in these places. However, let's consider that as a cinematic progress on the style, but it's clear that scripts are written by French bourgeois, not people from that place, that the story is written by a the biased opinion of a French bourgeois unashamed of showing that face of the hood: a place of war before a place of nice people, not objective people.

In 1995, you had LA HAINE, then you had MA 6 T VA CRAQUER, then LES MISERABLES, and to fullfill this ghetto in revolt cycle, you have the most impressive, awesome war film, made in only several one takes : brutal, moving, but no cliché ridden; and I understand those who use this element to say that this movie is the one too much. But they already knew that it was about this topic, so why do they watch it? In a western, if you don't like cowboys riding horses, why watching a western? See? So this movie will last forever in memories, because it is shocking on many points and that's also the purpose. I am not surprised that Netflix allowed total freedom as distributor to the director and producer. Movie theaters owners and distributors would have never done it, too many risks of riots for such of topic, social topic. This film is above all a social film, not a thriller. Surprising to see a cop character who should have better been played by someone else than a ghetto hoodlum face actor. I admire the factual "message" of this movie which refuses to take part, here no good guys nor bad guys. The former soldier - Abdel - character is the most terrific of the whole cast. The change of his character is the most surprising idea. Anyway, you have here interesting supporting characters, including Sebastien, this man who doesn't talk, or so little, where does it come from? We see him gardening, like an autist, then we see him later as an explosive expert.... Good ending.

THERE IS NOTHING SMALL ABOUT ATHENA. THEREFORE, THE ONLY WAY TO DO JUSTICE TO THIS MOVIE IS TO WRITE A REVIEW IN CAPITAL LETTERS. IT STARTS WITH AN ATTACK ON ALL SENSES IN A SHOT THAT SEEMS TO STRETCH THROUGH THE ENTIRE MOVIE. THE MASS SCENES OF UNREST GIVE YOU AN INSIGHT HOW A SIEGE IN ANCIENT TIMES HAVE LOOKED LIKE. AND WITH DIFFERENT COSTUMES AND WEAPONS, YOU MIGHT HAVE HAD A FEELING OF PARTICIPATING IN A BATTLE BACK THEN. AND JUST WHEN YOU THOUGHT ADRENALINE IS EVERYTHING ATHENA HAS TO OFFER, THE AUTHORS OPTED FOR EMOTIONS AND REACHED THE HEIGHTS OF AN ANCIENT GREEK TRAGEDY. THE CHARACTERS HAD TO MAKE DIFICULT CHOICES, TO SAY THE LEAST. THE RUNNING TIME OF ROUGHLY 90 MINUTES WAS THE RIGHT DECISION. EVERYTHING BEYOND WOULD BE PERSIFLAGE. IF I NEED TO SUM THIS ALL UP, I'D SAY ATHENA WAS MORE OF AN EXPERIENCE THAN MERELY A FILM. IT'S BEEN A LONG TIME A MOVIE I STREAMED DIDN'T MAKE ME REACH FOR THE FAST-FORWARD BUTTON. IT FELT AS IF SOMEONE WAS PUNCHING ME IN THE STOMACH DURING THE WHOLE DURATION OF THE MOVIE. IF WE ARE TO TAKE A LIGHTER APPROACH TO THIS REVIEW, ATHENA WOULD BE HATE (1995) MEETS TROY (2004). IN TERMS OF IMDB STARTS ATHENA IS AT THE TOP OF THE RANGE.

An umpteenth film about the suburbs, each time a little more violent than the previous one. Some clichés about the respected suburbs, the wicked police the nice city vigilantes. The film well made and well edited, but no message no moral no hope no future, nothing new since Hate. We change cities, we modernise weapons, we make young people crazy and so on from film to film. Quite appalling. Dialogues not very present and not understandable. A distorted view of the city populated by non-verbal savages communicating through violence. It's a movie of a father's son trying to gain legitimacy in the middle of the red light district. Nothing innovative, no endearing characters, no humor. A dark and sad film in form as in the background.

I was expecting a lot more from this film because I am long time admirer of both Romain Gavras work in music clips, and acting of Dali Benssalah. First of al good things: visuals!!! Piece of art, starting from first scene all the way to the very last moments of film. Secondly very good acting by leading roles, although unrealistic emotions at some moments ruined truly epic performance. You could definitely see a lot of talent here, but really bad script, so many plot holes, mistakes and goofs. Shortly speaking film started with somewhat around 8.5 and then steadily going down. No deeper meaning or cliffhangers definitely didn't save overall poor film. 6 is being very generous and only because pros I've mentioned was at high level.

The one single take in the beginning, the first 12 minutes, is amazing and spectacular. It's worth watching the movie just for this. But the rest ... everybody is pacing around really angry, screaming at each other. Like in a staged play. But somehow I was bored. And often even ennerved. The film was more passing bye than running through me. I think the biggest mistake they made was not to show the killing of the boy in the beginning. Note: when doing a revenge film, show at start why the hero has to take revenge. Show the injustice. Otherwise we won't care. Like your fellow frenchman Gaspar Noe did it in Irreversible. Aaaangeeerrr !!! Storytelling is not so complicated. Just follow some simple rules. Like: wanna tell a revenge story? Fine. Show the injustice in the beginning. Otherwise we won't care. The actor for Karim was miscast. He seems to be on the edge of crying most of the time. Lesson number too: the hero may bleed, but he shalt not cry. Why the soldier brother blows himself up in the end was beyond me. Was probably done for the visuals. Didn't make any sense. It was grotesque. His transition was not believable for one second. The director should stick to music videos. Also the character of Sebastien is laughable. He is just a tool. An autist savant in the beginning, he turns into a cool professional bomb builder all of a sudden in the end. Why does he live in Athena anyway? He doesn't fit in. The film has great visuals, but no soul. The actors scream a lot, but it's just like dogs barking. A lot of noise, nothing behind it. At times even comical. Especially the scenes with the drug dealer brother are funny. It's often like that with films of directors who come from commercial videos: great visuals, but empty. Empty shells. Cold spectacles we don't emphasize with.

This movie felt like the result of combining a music video with a soap opera, competing for a single long-take filming trophy, and it doesn't win in any department. You'd think the director's filmmaking experience is only making music videos and short films. Wait, that's exactly the problem here. The single-take opening scenes was decent for about five minutes, then it just got monotonous. In the normally comfortable 99 min runtime, there's maybe a 20 min window of relevant story pertaining to the film's conflict. The rest is all just overly stylized filler - mostly ridiculous and riddled with plot holes. If someone asked me what this movie was about, I'd answer it's about a bunch of angry spoiled Gen Z'ers - with access to endless fireworks, resorting to escalating violence with no regard to any one else or any consequences. Albeit a true evaluation of the times, the fact this film prides itself more on that factor, and displaces any logical attempts at a resolution, really misses the mark for the message it's trying to achieve. As much as I like action in a film, this was more of constant and relentless infantile anarchy, and that is nothing close to any enjoyable action. Although all casting and performances were great, especially in profiling the different attitudes and beliefs between the the brothers and their agendas, it focused too much on the anger rather than a solution, or any attempt thereof. The writing was just too convenient and scattershot with a bunch of nonsense and infantile themes. What's even worse is the ridiculous dialogue most of the characters had, such as the stepbrother constantly yelling and degrading his gang buddies. But the biggest writing flaw was the ridiculousness of the military brother beating his stepbrother to death. That was just some dumb soap opera antics to get a rise out of the viewers. You're grieving one brother, then the bipolar psycho kicks in and you kill your stepbrother. Then all of a sudden your life is worthless and you want to end it. So what's the point of this film? I could go on with many other plot and technical issues, but there's "no point". Even the score, albeit fitting, stops complimenting the story and starts to overtake the filming when it just becomes too constant and overbearing. I would've enjoyed this film more by muting it, and playing hip-hop music in the background for a 99 min gang-banger music video. It's a generous 5/10 only for the great performances by mostly newb actors, specifically Sami Slimane as Karim.