Athena

Athena is one of the most surprising films I've seen this year and I think it's safe to say I ended up loving it, I didn't know what to expect going in and this film wonderfully surprised me, while it's basically a retelling of the year between George Floyd's death and the trial in 2021, but it managed to put a few twists and turns in also.

It's a visual spectacle with a brilliant atmosphere, beautiful cinematography and truly bone cracking fight scenes, our main character, Abdel, is brilliant, Dali Benssalah put on a truly raw and powerful performance perfectly portraying the pain we all felt during the time of violence and riots.

The musical score is absolutely wonderful, wow, it's some of the best I've heard since Causeway, Athena manages to give us a driven character story while also having a somewhat breathtaking ending to pull it all together, and I'm proud to say I loved it.

Athena gets an A-

...too much of everything. It makes the impression that the director and the d.o.p. Were working for their reel and their reputation instead for the film. The long shots, the fire works, the steadycam shots, the drone shots...everything is kinda used all the time and frequently without serving any purpose except of being there and looking cool. And thats the biggest problem of the film. It feels like the wet dream of any music video director, but not like an generic and authentic film. It lacks of bravery to look ugly...sure it looks good if a dude on a horse is riding through the smoke weaving the french flag in the middle of a revolt...but does it really need to be there?

As "Athena" (2022 release from France; 99 min) opens, a guy of Algerian descent announces at a police station that his younger brother, just 13 yo, has died resulting from police brutality, and that the police is investigating who is responsible. The guy urges for calm. But before we know it, someone throws a Molotov cocktail into the police station, and it sets into motion the looting of the police station... At this point we are less than 10 min into the movie.

Couple of comments: this is the latest from French director Romain Gavros, best known for shooting edgy music videos. Here Gavros brings the fictional tale of a suburban (filmed in a Paris banlieue) uprising following yet another instance of police brutality. While fictional, it feels all too familiar of course. Heads up: the opening sequence that lasts about 10 minutes is insanely intense, and... brought in a single take. In fact the long takes are a recurring feature in the film (I honestly don't know how some of these shots are even possible). The movie's tension is palpable from the get-go and really doesn't let up. The no-names cast is quite good, in particular the main character Abdel, played by French-Algerian actor Dali Bensallah. Bottom line: this revenge crime drama grabbed my attention from start to finish. But if intensive and over the top violence is not your thing, better stay away.

"Athena" premiered earlier this month at the Venice film festival to positive buzz. It started airing on Netflix this weekend. After seeing a positive write-up in Friday's New York Times, I just had to check it out. Glad I did. If you are in the mood for a very intense revenge crime drama set in a French banlieue, I'd readily suggest you check this out and draw your own conclusion.

Powerful, and brilliantly full of cinematic visual energy.

"Athena" succeeds from the first 10 mins continuous shot in the opening scene to soak you in with its fast pace, and ongoing tension that pushes you on the edge and doesn't fail to blow your mind with its climactic chaotic beauty and changing emotions.

Simple story executed big with great performances. I would've loved to see a bit more depth in the story, It would've strengthened the premise and given it further narrative depth than the stylistic approach, which I didn't mind much.

The cinematography is the strongest element of the movie, the visuals were striking!! It's highly impressive on the technical level, the camera work delivered such an incredible dynamic immersion that transformed you into the action.

ATHENA is an urban war movie with a political touch by Romain Gavras who follows the lead of his father -the Greek well known director and screenplay writer- Costa Gavras. The film is all about how the lives of 3 French siblings with an Algerian descent immerse into chaos after the death of the fourth younger brother under unclear circumstances. The pain of the loss becomes rage and then... BOOM! Everything explodes at ATHENA building complex in Paris and the social strife begins. Although the film has all the necessary elements to be mentioned as a contemporary Greek tragedy and besides the insane long take opening scene it also has a lot of weak spots and blurry motives.