On paper it's a very classic script: rookie emergency service worker is paired with older and more experienced colleague and, well, things happen. But many films are classic on paper, yet not on the screen.
This is a film with powerful scenes which stay with you for days after watching it.
And it has its flaws: it lacks finesse at time, editing is sometimes inconsistent and the narrative may seem not original enough.
But it makes up for all of that through the passion of showing the viewer a powerful message. Black Flies is a movie you will remember, and this is what all good films have in common. Years after seeing it you may still think about scenes you've seen and the characters' lifes and what happened to them. And isn't that what cinema is about, beyond perfect mise-en-scene and guidebook takes?
I particularly appreciated the way it was filmed, especially during very graphic scenes, where the disturbing side was accentuated by the quickly moving and sometimes shaking camera.
I also liked that, despite the fact the movie is supposedly much anchored to reality given its subject, it is filmed in a way that makes it feel like the characters are in another world, parallel and similar to ours, but with slightly different codes. Black Flies is almost like a video game world where violence is programmed and reason nonexistent, New York City is dark, gloomy and burning. In this inferno, the characters live an infinite struggle to save sometimes unsaveable people, making their role look like a necessary curse, a drop of good in an ocean of evil.
8/10.
