‘Disco Boy Review: A Fierce Franz Rogowski Cant Save This PretensionPlagued Debut

© Provided by The Hollywood Reporter

A young Belarusian embarks on a perilous journey across the European Union to enlist in the French Foreign Legion, while a young Nigerian rebel leader and his sister attempt to help their people escape the post-colonial devastation of their rival at the Berlinale Diskoboy .

The compelling and intense physical performance of German actor Franz Rogowski (last seen in Ira Sachs ' Passage ), superb cinematography courtesy of top-notch director of photography Helen Luvert, and soulful electronic music from composer Vitalik make for a captivating and captivating cinematic experience. . But yes, this screenplay, written by director and screenwriter Giacomo Abruzzese, is a mess - a mixture of inoffensive supernatural elements and heavy arthouse pretensions, spiced up with outright plagiarism of Claire Denis's infinitely excellent film It's for French Immigrants, 1999's Bo . But in any case, you can steal the best.

Aleksey von Rogowski first meets his friend Mikhail (Mikhail Baliki) when he travels to Poland from Belarus and pretends to go to a football match. Both are full of enthusiasm and adventure. But when he tries to illegally cross the river border into Germany, something goes wrong and only Alex makes it to France. From the way he looks at 1000 meters, he won't be the same again - but if he goes through army training and survives five years with strength, his reward will be a French passport, no question. .

We then see Alexei and his mud-splattered comrades pushing their bodies to the edge as the sergeant yells at them, followed by a huge practice montage. Everything could easily be cut and pasted from countless other soldier-in-boot camp movies, with the exception of the basic electronic dance music, which feels too 21st ^century .

Meanwhile, in the Niger Delta, the charismatic rebel Jomo (newcomer Mor Ndiaye, originally from Gambia) leads a posse that opposes a petrochemical company's forced land grab, although the exact nature of the conflict is unclear. The opening sequence, which takes place in a room full of sleeping corpses, suggests that some of the action may take place in a dream world. It's hard to tell, and it seems like Abruzzo, who debuted in this short a few shorts later, is happy to keep it under wraps.

Either way, Jomo has a golden eye for his rhyming sister Udoka (Shilpi Laticia Kee), and the two siblings share a close emotional bond. Perhaps that is why Udoka and Alexei meet again in the second half of the film in a Parisian nightclub after he and Jomo violently clash in another river.

There's certainly something evocative about Abruzzi's filming of the rivers of Poland, the Niger and Paris, swampy places where the waters of history wash over his aforementioned seething characters. There is clearly a deep sympathy for these traumatized peoples of Eastern Europe and Africa, who find themselves on opposite sides of a conflict that only the rich ultimately benefit from. But everyone feels more like symbols than characters, even Alex.

At least Rogowski and Kai are expressive enough to add some emotional ballast through the use of movement, but it's really not enough for viewers who expect more. Ultimately, Luwer's bright, intense camerawork is still stunning, even if it feels a bit like a fad with documentary elements.

Click here to read the full article.