November

The director of November, Cédric Jimenez, made a great film here. He managed to take a great angle on the horrific 2015 terrorist attacks that hit France, following the professional and personal struggles of law enforcement officers, highlighting their human side and all that brave citizens can do to make a real difference in helping inspectors. The film has a very good pace and it is quite close to reality. A real pleasure to see Jean Dujardin play such an important role in this very serious, but very entertaining film. Highly recommended for audiences of all ages, nationalities or religions.

Despite a decent cast and a few captivating moments in the last part, a return to the 2015 horror that too often lacks embodiment and stays on the surface, with the script lacking any ideas, thematics. Shame. The director was maybe afraid of hurting, of being indecent, of creating controversy with regard to the government perhaps, but the problem is that his film does not bring anything new compared to what we know. Through the medias of the time. What is the real point of describing this hunt for terrorists when we already know the events? Unfortunately, the script sounds pretty hollow. The big film on the subject with its possible implications (economic, political, etc.) remains to be made. Imagine what the Yves Boisset of the 1970s and early 80's could have done with this hot topic...

As Kathryn Bigelow did with ZERO DARK THIRTY, in 2013, about Ossama Ben Laden trackdown and execution after 9/11 events, French movie industry now does the same about 11/13 mass killings in Paris. The same but not entirely though, only the few days following Friday the 13th, "BLACK FRIDAY", whilst the US movie showed the entire Ben Laden affair. It is taut, tense, gripping, shocking during some scenes, and accurate at the most possible. But unlike the American movie, the characters are not depicted more than necessary. We know nothing about them, except maybe the Anaïs Demoustiers one, this young female cop facing pure horror. But for the rest, including Jean Dujardin, we know nothing. It's not important to appreciate this awesome film, but it is good to tell it. The particularity of this feature is also to remain factual, always factual. Neutral. At no moment, the film maker Cedric Jimenez takes part. It is also very important to warn the audiences. Very unusual and maybe many people won't understand this. It is also question to show some of the terrorists but not enough the victims. Is it a good point? I honestly don't know, each of us will appreciate or not.... A damn good film, however. You can not miss it. We can now consider Cedric Gimenez as the French Paul Greengrass.

Caught this just before it disappeared from Netflix. I hadn't planned on watching it, but something about the timing-late at night, a quiet house-made it feel like the right moment. Afterward, I found myself wavering between eight stars and six. The more I sat with it-and read what others had to say, both the praise and the pushback-the more I felt okay settling at seven.

"November" is gripping in the way only real-life horror stories can be. It doesn't waste time-it throws you right into the tension and doesn't let up. The focus stays almost entirely on the police investigation that followed the Paris attacks of November 13, 2015. It's a bold decision, and for a while, I thought it worked. You feel the urgency in every hallway conversation, every frantic phone call. But somewhere along the way, I started feeling distanced. The chaos becomes numbing. The characters blur together. I found myself wishing the film would slow down-not for exposition, but just to give us a glimmer of who these people are-their individual wants and needs.

There's this strange emptiness at the center of the film, and maybe that's intentional. Maybe we're meant to feel the machinery of justice grinding forward, indifferent to individual lives. But I missed the human angles-the victims, the city, the quiet grief. I kept thinking that this story might've worked better as a miniseries. Something longer, something that could have made space for the emotional aftermath as much as the procedural chase.

Still, I'm glad I watched it. It's a respectful, well-made film. But when it ended, I didn't feel closure-I felt questions. Not about the case, but about how we tell stories like this. Who do we center? Who gets left out? Maybe there's no perfect way to film a tragedy this complex. But maybe trying is still worth something.

Excellent action movie, very good distribution. Very sustained rhythm, worthy of the best thrillers. But this is real life because this film is very faithful to historical reality. It therefore has a pedagogical virtue and deserves a very wide dissemination.

No voyeurism, very modest camera even when the scenes are shot in the hospital. And yet it would have been easy to sensationalize.

I would add that this true story which is told to us shows us all these men and all these women who protect us and who generally work in the shadows. This film has the great merit of putting them in the light for once, and of showing us how grateful we should be to them.