Nocturama (2017)

Highly Overrated But Still Good

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

Violence is not the answer. Something that many have been taught, but these kids either never heard of this or didn't listen. So while they plan and execute their "plan", we get a weird mix in the aftermath. Mostly we see them "waiting it out". There are glimpses of (social) media reports and how what they did affected people. But overall this is something that feels cold and meant to be detaching from the main characters.As much as they are detached from life. It doesn't really give us too much insight into the mindset though, there are too many characters for that. Unless you are able to read between the silences (and there are quite a few of them throughout the movie). But while it is a slow movie, it also has glimpses of violence. Something you have to be aware of, just in case you are appaled by it or can't handle it

The first hour or so of "Nocturama" is a dazzling and suspenseful set piece that details how a group of young terrorists carry out coordinated attacks on government and business buildings in Paris. Crisp and playful editing has the story doubling back in time and shows us how the paths of the various characters, which at first are seemingly independent of one another, intersect.Then the film enters its second half, where the terrorists hole up overnight in a shopping mall, where one of their number is a security guard, and the whole exercise falls apart. Meant to be a blistering indictment of consumer capitalism and and I suppose the hollow convictions at the center of political activism -- these kids are obsessed with the very consumer products made by the institutions they condemn -- the film instead suffers from a fatal lack of logic and realism. By the time military soldiers are prowling through the mall randomly shooting whoever they see, whether armed or not, and without the slightest interest in taking survivors for interrogation even though these are all people who are supposed to be involved in a terrorist plot, I had thrown up my hands and given up.I get it, I get it. I shouldn't get hung up on a desire for realism and should instead embrace the symbolic and representational aspects of a film like this. Which I have no trouble doing if the symbolism is handled well. If I'm not meant to take events depicted in a film at face value, then the director needs to be better at indicating that. The film doesn't follow any kind of logic, not even of the internal kind. These kids are mature enough to carry out a detailed and sophisticated terrorist plot, but then have no better plan afterwards than to hang out at the mall? They seem to think that if they can make it for 24 hours without being tracked down then they're in the clear? That doesn't make any sense. And no military group would behave the way the ones in this film do. And no news agency would be broadcasting on television that the hideout of the terrorists was known before the authorities had arrived to contain the situation. The film requires too much suspension of disbelief on the part of its audience, with the result that we can't then focus on what the film is trying to tell us.Visually and aurally the film is impressive. One just wishes the storytelling hadn't been so flabby and lazy.Grade: C+

"It's amazing how much time you can spend with a person and still know nothing about them." A quote from the Fifth Estate, where you actually DO get know the characters. In this film which is over two hours long, is long and tension-filled, but incredibly vague. A group of young Parisian terrorists, from all different backgrounds, plant bombs in different parts of the city, and take refuge inside a luxurious department store. We never find out why the kids did what they did, why and what locations were targeted, what led them to all come together to do this and what their feelings are about it. They all act indifferent, and are willing to kill anyone who finds them out. Some are more emotional than others, but the feelings are shown to a minimal extent. In the end, a squat team enter the building and literally gun down every single one of them in cold blood, including ones who are surrendering, and even a homeless couple mistaken for their part in the kid's crimes. It's a horrible disturbing picture coming out too soon after the 2015 Paris attacks.I never really like things that are too vague, and offer very little sympathy for characters. And this is no exception.

I did not expect anything special with this movie but certainly not this I just watched. And I was not disappointed at all. But surprised, yes. A very interesting point of view about terrorism for sure, and different from the MADE IN France aspect. Here, a group of young men and women in their early twenties, and also from different race and class origins, not ISIS prototypes, decide to pull four different bomb explosions in Paris, and simultaneously. And just after this done, they shelter in a big and fancy department store. The first part in breath taking even not spectacular at all. It is a really weird film, I warn you folks. It won't please to every one. The second part could a sort of tribute to Georges Romero's DAWN OF TH DEAD - without zombies. The big department stores means the today consumerist society, and a short scene may also be a little tribute to SHINING. The true surprise is the ending, very unusual but after all not so for a French film. The way the authorities and politic power decide to fight against terrorist threat is a real shock to me. A film that makes you think a lot folks. A lot. But, one more time, most of you may not like it.