Night of the Kings

For once , the trade paper reviews were actually accurate, it is so different from what 'we' are used to watching. And I was totally engaged from the very first moments of the film until the end and for me it was a movie that stays with you and you come to understand some of the deeper aspects of the film after you have watched it. The movie has completely different 'sensibilities' than Hollywood fare, it is most decidedly 1) African and 2) by a foreign (French) director. The best I can tell anyone reading this review is that I was so glad I watched it and enjoyed every last minute of it.

Not bad, not great, good. Beautifully shot with the potential for intricate storytelling, but lacking depth beyond the cinematography. It is a rollercoaster I'm glad to have ridden once, but won't be returning to.

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.

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.

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!!!!