{"id":6771,"date":"2024-10-25T11:01:17","date_gmt":"2024-10-25T15:01:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=6771"},"modified":"2024-10-25T11:01:17","modified_gmt":"2024-10-25T15:01:17","slug":"les-miserables-2019","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/10\/25\/les-miserables-2019\/","title":{"rendered":"Les Miserables (2019)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Les Miserables<\/strong> (2019)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Amazon\/Drama-Thriller\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 103 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (language throughout, some disturbing\/violent content, sexual references)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Ladj Ly\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Ladj Ly, Giordano Gederlini and Alexis Manenti\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Pink Noise \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Cinematography: Julien Poupard\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: January 24, 2020 (Philadelphia, PA)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Damien Bonnard, Alexis Manenti, Djibril Zonga, Issa Perica, Al-Hassan Ly, Steve Tientcheu, Almamy Kanoute, Jeanne Balibar, Nazar Ben Fatma, Raymond Lopez, Omar Soumare, Sana Joachaim, Lucas Omiri.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Spoken in French w\/English subtitles<\/strong><\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: ***<\/p>\n

DISCLAIMER: Les Miserables<\/strong>, one of this year\u2019s Academy Award nominees for Best International Feature Film (formerly Best Foreign Film), is NOT an update of Victor Hugo\u2019s novel. It has nothing to do with the Tony Award-winning Broadway musical either. It\u2019s titled such because the action takes place in the French suburb of Montfermeil, one of the novel\u2019s main settings. Also, injustice is a shared theme between the original story and Ladj Ly\u2019s film. Otherwise, this Les Miserables<\/strong> is a crazy horse of a different color.<\/p>\n

\u00a0By way of placing the French import Les Miserables<\/strong> into context, it\u2019s important to know what happened in Paris in the fall of 2005. I\u2019m talking about the riots that broke out in response to the treatment of North African immigrants by police. They went on for three weeks. Echoes of this tumultuous period still reverberate through the community. It\u2019s never been forgotten. Even so, nothing much has changed. Cops still harass people of color. Immigrant residents are still suspicious and resentful of the police. It\u2019s only a matter of time before things boil over again.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The film centers on three members of the SCU (Street Crime Unit)- leader Chris (Manenti), an aggressive sort whose brutish tactics make him even more unpopular; Gwada (Zonga), a bilingual fellow better able to diffuse volatile situations by virtue of having grown up in the neighborhood and Ruiz (Bonnard), a newbie learning the ropes. He doesn\u2019t like everything he sees his training officers do, but he doesn\u2019t exactly have a say in the matter.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The catalyst for the events of Les Miserables<\/strong> is a harmless prank pulled by a boy from the neighborhood, Issa (Perica). He steals a lion cub from a circus run by Zorro (Lopez) who threatens violence if his property isn\u2019t returned. After seeing Issa\u2019s pic of the cub on social media, they track him down and try to take him into custody. The end result is a horrific \u201caccident\u201d captured on video by a drone operated by another neighborhood boy, Buzz (Ly). Chris orders his guys to track down the drone and obtain the footage before it ends up going viral which it surely will. Between the cops\u2019 racist-commando style and the civilians\u2019 attitude towards law enforcement, this situation can only end one way.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The final moments of Les Miserables<\/strong>, reminiscent of Spike Lee\u2019s 1989 urban masterpiece Do the Right Thing, are as shocking as anything you\u2019re likely to see on the nightly news. SPOILER ALERT! <\/strong>It\u2019s a powerful ending made more so by the director\u2019s refusal to provide closure. It\u2019s a creative choice that feels as right as it does frustrating. I\u2019ll always remember the hostile audience reaction to John Sayles\u2019 Limbo when the screen went to black without revealing the fate of the main characters at the end. Like Sayles, Ladj Ly is trying to make a point and mostly succeeds.<\/p>\n

\u00a0One of best choices Ly makes is NOT trying to force things when it comes to the film\u2019s volatile subject matter. He doesn\u2019t need to; it\u2019s a heated subject that needs no overheating. Every scene, every interaction palpitates with the threat of violence. Tensions aren\u2019t just simmering; they\u2019re ready to boil over at any moment. Ly films Les Miserables<\/strong> in the style of a documentary while keeping a tight control over the chase and fight sequences. Their organic nature makes them all the more exciting. He also successfully juggles several narrative balls with multiple characters like the Mayor (Tientcheu) and Salah (Kanoute), the community spiritual leader and go-to guy when a cop or resident needs help.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The acting feels completely natural as well. Character development isn\u2019t a primary concern as evidenced by the screenplay not following through on Ruiz\u2019s personal life. Mention is made of a divorce and custody battle, but Ly and his co-writers (including Manenti) do next to nothing with it. On the other hand, the brief glimpses we get of Chris and Gwada at home tell us all we need to know about how the job affects them. As Issa, Perica gives a sad, soulful performance as a boy without support of any kind destined to go nowhere in life. His sadness turning to anger is absolutely convincing.<\/p>\n

\u00a0In a larger sense, Les Miserables<\/strong> deals with the issue of belonging. Who\u2019s allowed to feel like they \u201cbelong\u201d? Do these foreigners have the right to consider themselves French citizens? The cops certainly don\u2019t think so. Look at the way they treat three young girls waiting for a bus. To them, the people they\u2019re supposed to protect aren\u2019t really people. Their attitude stands in stark contrast to the opening scene of neighborhood boys joining their fellow Frenchmen in celebration when France won the World Cup in 2018. Racism is a blight that stains many countries, a sad fact that makes Les Miserables<\/strong> both timely and global. Although flawed, it gets its point across.\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Les Miserables (2019)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Amazon\/Drama-Thriller\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 103 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (language throughout, some disturbing\/violent content, sexual references)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Ladj Ly\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Ladj Ly, Giordano Gederlini and Alexis Manenti\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Pink Noise \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Cinematography: Julien Poupard\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: January 24, 2020 (Philadelphia, PA)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Damien Bonnard, Alexis Manenti, Djibril Zonga, Issa Perica, Al-Hassan Ly, Steve Tientcheu, Almamy Kanoute, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7163,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6771","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dramas","category-foreign"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/Les-Miserables-2019-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6771","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6771"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6771\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7165,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6771\/revisions\/7165"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7163"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6771"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6771"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6771"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}