Night of the Kings

Written and directed by Philippe Lecote, Night of the Kings was screened outdoors at the Hollywood Legion Drive-in Cinema and the soft and cool breeze present throughout the film laid down an atmospheric ambiance that no indoor theatre could match. Blazing cinematography with vibrant red, orange, and yellow hues from cinematographerTobie-Marier Robitaille rivaled Roger Deakins Academy-award winning work from BladeRunner 2049.

Night of the Kings turned out to be a special Friday Night at the drive-in. In addition to the exceptional cinematography, epic (literally and figuratively) production design the stalwart performances, and the classic narrative combined with the writing and seemingly spontaneous choreography send this feature film into the stratosphere. Highly recommended!

A young man is sent to "La Maca", a prison of Ivory Coast in the middle of the forest ruled by its prisoners. With the red moon rising, he is designated by the Boss to be the new "Roman" and must tell a story to the other prisoners. Night of the Kings is a really cool concept. Right away it's interesting and I kept wondering what would happen next. The writing for this is cool in the way that it's based on storytelling. The directing by Philippe Lacôte is very well done. But by far the thing that struck me most is the amazing ensemble. All of them have their own distinct characters and use it to the fullest. If the SAGs could nominate an ensemble that no one really knows about, this would be the one. Now, I do have some pacing issues and some of the execution didn't always work for me. But the crazy ending more than makes up for it. I would hope to see this at the Oscars or at least the Globes for international feature this year.

Between this and Undine, magical realism as a genre is really putting in the work in 2021 😤

Combining african realism with magic. The wild prison of Abidjan become the scene to explore both the country's turbulent present and social conditions through rite and music. A very different 'prison movie' that shows that young african cinema draw its way not by imitating but by creating new species, adapted to its specialities. Acting is superbe - Denis lavant holds a very distinctive role, underlying his peculiarity as a unique performer - and the director manages genuisly the scenes where the lot of prisoners act as a chorus in ancient tragedy. The living music tradition of western Africa palys too an important role. Surprisingly astonishing!!!!

Let's just put aside that this is one of the most beautifully shot films I've seen in a very long time, and that the locale and prison sets were breathtaking and so authentic, you felt like you were there. Why take a boring nonsense lame story and waste it on such beautiful visuals?

Even the no-name casting and performances were excellent, and clearly writer and director Philippe Lacôte knew how to direct his cast and his scenes perfectly. But such a dumb story. Did all these raving reviews from top critics see the same film I did?

The story was riddled with plot holes, was illogical, full of nonsense, and just dragged out a story-less story about storytelling for a normally pleasant 93 min that felt never ending. And the pacing was actually adequate.

All I know is that if I had those exact same resources available to me, I would've hired a 5th grade drama class student to write a better script for me.

I'm still giving it a generous 6/10 all going to the stunning visuals.