Last night I finally streamed Romain Gavras‘ Athena, a dynamically shot urban warfare flick that’s almost entirely consumed by fury, racism, urgency, constant shouting, explosions, flames and velocity. It’s another film in the vein of Ladj Ly‘s brilliant Les Miserables (’19), or, if you will, another example of “cinema de banlieue”, the first of which was Mathieu Kassovitz’s La Haine (’95). But I quickly tuned out of Athena — too loud and unyielding, too relentless, too ferocious, too much of an onslaught. First-rate tech — excellent cinematography and choreography — but I began to feel bored with 10 or 15 minutes. I stuck in out to the end, but I needed dramatic nourishment so I re-watched Emily the Criminal (my second time). Hit the spot.
