Neptune Frost

Neptune Frost is completely trippy. Black codes from the underground meets cloud networks but all expressed as some kind of extended contemporary dance piece.

Parts are simply incoherent but there is always something to look at. It is interesting to have 2 or three characters in the foreground having a poetry recital while in the background there are often dancers interpreting the music that we are all hearing.

There are a number of ideas going on here and I really enjoyed this film as a creative and engaging although the stilted dialogue was a bit too theatrical for its own good.

It was very much like some kind of theatre / contemporary dance piece where the words are clues to the story but not the whole story at all.

I read somewhere that the music was 3 albums worth and when I saw the drummers at the end I was ready for the film to finish so that editing felt like a natural arc. I saw this film at a film festival and I hope it gets wider release. It is exciting and visually and musically very much a success on its own terms. There is a narrative but I think that is secondary.

In this current wokester phase when things become stagnant, repetitive it is very rare to see filmmakers push forward and create something unique. This DIY Afrofuturists utopian musical is one such experiment which we don't see happen every now and then. But it is hard to define "Neptune Frost" to any genre, there's a bit of everything here.

The movie even highlights very significant and deep philosophical thoughts and problems like colonialism, data dictatorship, capitalism and many more. It is a gloomy picture which paints the journey of intersex hacker Neptune and Matalusa. Then we have a community called Digitalisa which is a safe haven for young hackers. There is many more threads going on with and we get a glimpse of lives of both the characters, the past and the coltan mine which works as an allegory for the film with musical numbers as a sign of protest. The soundscapes are in abundance here as they're used to push the narrative and as a harmony for the filmmakers code about technology and its labor. What I found interesting was the sequence here, with each track being different right from the opening ambient followed by the drum thumping in the coal mine and the breath taking finale and the post-credit closing with glitches which is structurally the simplest with just purely ambient eerie drone sound as Neptune looks up and speaks to the camera. Those who are aware of the Burundians and Rwandans history will tend to like it even more.

To summarize, this is a very contemplative, surrealistic meditative musical with stunning cinematography. Few will draw comparison to Bacurau (2019), the works of the legendary Sun Ra, Jacques Baratier. In addition i would love to add Jean-Pierre Bekolo's Les saignantes (2005) which is one of the most overlooked sci-fi. I could say a lot more about 'Neptune Frost', the costumes, art direction but why? I will need to revisit this again and recommend everyone to see this movie for yourself, support a indie films. I also recommend you to watch Night of the Kings from Ivory Coast directed by Philippe Lacôte, Atlantics from Senegal directed by Mati Diop, This Is Not a Burial, It's a Resurrection from Lesotho directed by Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese.

The many themes of sexuality, capitalism, colonization, exploitation all tie up at the end when there's these sort of "lectures" . The music and the unique approach is great!

It seems like everything went into aesthetics with this one. There are really cool ideas and backgrounds and characters, but instead of plot development, we just get a lot of concepts shouted at us instead. This would have been better simply as an album or long music video, in my opinion. I am a huge Saul Williams fan and had hoped for a more complete movie experience.

Take Sun Ra's Space is the Place. Update it to modern day Africa. It runs like Powaqaatsi if that movie had an actual plot. Combine liberally with costumes and makeup reminiscent of Liquid Sky. Add in a teaspoon of 2001. A dash of Viridiana. Fold in liberal amounts of Marxist poetry. Beware, it's a musical. Probably the only sci-fi-ish musical ever attempted. The musical parts often drag on in parts, especially the anti-Imperialism poetry jams. However, it's well worth the watch for all the color! Contains enough gender bending to qualify as a product of the 21st century. WTF did I just watch, will be your reaction upon the conclusion. Tunes reminiscent of Aphex Twin, Deep Forest, and the Red Army Choir. Destined to become a cult favorite in 20 years or so.