A very rewarding second viewing. On paper it's kind of a typical rise of a gangster story, but when you get involved it's something entirely unique. Jacques Audiard is an immensely talented director and he creates an ambiance here that is chilling and intense all the way through. Few filmmakers can create action scenes that get a lump in your throat the way that he does here. Every time a knife or a gun comes on screen there's that feeling that anything can happen, it's all so gritty and real. Even some of the most skilled directors can't manage to create something that feels so real in this current state of cinema where everything is so sensationalized and the most brutal violence has become commonplace. But it never feels like the stakes are low here and nothing feels run of the mill. From the first killing until that final shootout in the SUV, every scene of violence had my blood pumping, even on a second viewing.
What's most impressive about the film though is the journey that Malik goes through. For a film that takes place primarily inside a prison, the scope here is really epic. Spanning several years, it takes us on Malik's journey from this scared, uneducated thug with no friends into a bonafide crime lord with fleets at his back. It's a powerful tale, there are so few films that have created such a transformation like this. Most powerful of all is the fact that you don't even realize the scope of that evolution of character until the very end. Audiard, and Tahar Rahim in a breathtaking performance, make this journey so authentic and genuine that you just coast on this path with him without even realizing how different he becomes by the end. When the final credits roll and you look back at the young man that we started the film with, it's absolutely astonishing the evolution the character has gone through over the past two and a half hours. Audiard and Rahim create one of the finest character studies in one of the most impressive crime films of the past decade.
What's most impressive about the film though is the journey that Malik goes through. For a film that takes place primarily inside a prison, the scope here is really epic. Spanning several years, it takes us on Malik's journey from this scared, uneducated thug with no friends into a bonafide crime lord with fleets at his back. It's a powerful tale, there are so few films that have created such a transformation like this. Most powerful of all is the fact that you don't even realize the scope of that evolution of character until the very end. Audiard, and Tahar Rahim in a breathtaking performance, make this journey so authentic and genuine that you just coast on this path with him without even realizing how different he becomes by the end. When the final credits roll and you look back at the young man that we started the film with, it's absolutely astonishing the evolution the character has gone through over the past two and a half hours. Audiard and Rahim create one of the finest character studies in one of the most impressive crime films of the past decade.