Le Jour viendra où...

Quick fire dialogue from fully realized characters in a well shot fable about misunderstanding well intention people with different ideas

I am just back from the first public showing of this movie in the UK at the Cameo Edinburgh. This was billed as having a Q&A session with Chris Morris, usually this means the director is in London and its a satellite link up but no, he was actually here. My initial thoughts about the film was that its a very funny in a similar vein to Four Lions, its about inept would be terrorists and the authorities on their tail. The spin with this movie is that the FBI are out to entrap and this time its black Muslims in the vein of the 5% nation or nation of Islam. The main reason this does not feel as impactful is that the terrorist events which informed four lions are somewhat in the past. Four lions felt very immediate as there was a perception these events could happen anytime. With the war on terror on American soil now wound down, The Day Shall Come does not have the same weight. Its masterfully written and hysterically funny in parts however the premise that the FBI/authorities are as inept and that they only arrest and convict innocents will not go down well in some places. The fact that the terror threat has greatly reduced hints that they must be doing something right? And that is the main difficulty of the film. The fact that the war of terror strategy has worked not only counters the narrative of the film, the reduced threat means its no longer as current as Four Lions was. The cast and directing are excellent as is the dialogue and there are many shockingly great twists. It does feel an odd choice to use the black Muslim movement as a focus for the movie, I will be watching with interest how they respond to it. As for the Q&A with Chris Morris? There werent many questions from the audience as people seemed a bit intimidated by his intelligence. He did go on to explain his research suggested the FBI were the biggest "recruiter" of terrorists and explained how. I feel he will be doing alot of explaining once this hits the theatres. Highly recommended although thankfully things have moved on since Four Lions, which is surely a good thing.

"Based on a hundred true stories," as the title card reads, Morris' second feature finds the darkest humour in the most lunatic home truths. Examining how the FBI were out to lure antiAmerican groups into acts of terrorism to stop them being terrorists, the Miami-set story sees a field office train its sights on a revolutionary named Moses Al Shabaz (Marchánt Davis). Leader of the skeletal Star of Six, Moses is out to save AfricanAmerican communities, even banning guns from his group. But he's mentally troubled, believing God and Satan talk to him via a duck. It's when FBI agents try to entrap him via a snitch (Kayvan Novak) and turn him into an arms dealer that the farce really kicks in, like a Dr. Strangelove for the 21st Century. Morris and co-writer Jesse Armstrong set up the FBI - with the exception of Anna Kendrick's G-Woman Kendra - as clownish, somewhat softening the intended blows. The satire doesn't quite hit as hard as earlier Morris projects, nor is it as funny. But it's still brimming with ideas and, in his first feature-length role, the charismatic Davis is a real find.

Satires are most powerful when the jokes ring so true that you find yourself laughing at the absurdity of our world and not just the jokes. In this regard, this film soars!

I'm a huge fan of Chris Morris. Ever since stumbling on The Day Today one evening on BBC 2, I've found his output to be pretty much spot on. Four Lions is easily one of my favourite films, and Brass Eye is one of the few perfect comedy series I've ever seen.

With that said, The Day Shall Come is less of an outright comedy than Four Lions, and may alienate some fans due to the American setting, mostly unknown cast, and relatively stripped back levels of humour. Does that mean it's not a good film? Absolutely not. Does it mean that anyone who expected an out and out comedy in the vein of FL will go away disappointed? Quite possibly, and I'd wager that the lower scores on here are testament to that.

On the whole, the cast do a great job. Moses is an inherently likeable character, and for that reason I found myself rooting for him a fair bit. His wife was played in a similarly loveable manner, and the two of them had a great deal of chemistry.

Anna Kendrick (of whom I'm not really a fan) has some great lines and is very believable as an FBI agent with one eye on career advancement and the other on, you know, functioning like an actual human being.

The rest of the supporting cast are all perfectly fine, with nothing really standing out as bad to me at least.

Where the film really shines is in the dialogue however. I won't quote it here, but there's one line about a toy weapon that made me howl, and another gag about mangos which had me chuckling after the movie was done.

In all, it's a good comedy and a superb satire, but recalibrate your expectations accordingly. This isn't a British film, it's an American one with some excellent writing from a British national treasure. Go in with as little foreknowledge as possible and you'll enjoy it. Just don't expect another Four Lions.