Larry Oliver Film Reviews

  Not many people want to see a film about African Americans being beaten up and killed without reply. That’s my take-away from the poor box-office performance of Detroit , an exceptionally well-made, suitably angry film that has extremely limited appeal. It is taut. It is gripping. But where is the uplift? Where is the justice? Violence without justice is just pornography. Only shufflers in trench coats do pornography. Detroit is a work of outrage from 65 year old director Kathryn Bigalow, the only woman to date to collect the Best Director Oscar – and that was a long time coming. Whilst other women her age might think about retirement, Bigalow has immersed herself in the events of July 1967, when a police operation, the raid of a ‘blind pig’ (illegal drinking) party led to five days of rioting. Bigalow and her estimable screenwriter Mark Boal – he’s Paul Laverty to her Ken Loach – reproduce an atmosphere of uncertain violence agitated by the local police. The nub of the film is...

Pictured : Jaded journalist Arthur ( Benjamin Biolay ) reacquaints himself with refugee advocate Mathilde ( Camille Cottin , right) who introduces him to Afghan refugee Daoud ( Amrullah Safi , centre) in the French comedy drama,  Quelques Jours Pas Plus ( Just a Couple of Days ), co-written and directed by Julie Navarro . Still courtesy of BAC Films (France) Just a Couple of Days ( Quelques Jours Pas Plus ), the feature debut of casting director turned actual director, Julie Navarro , is an appealing comedy-drama about a music-loving journalist, Arthur ( Benjamin Biolay ) and a lawyer turned activist, Mathilde ( Camille Cottin ) who circle one another in a will-they-won’t-they relationship orbiting Daoud ( Amrullah Safi ), an Afghan refugee whom Arthur agrees to accommodate for the ‘couple of days’ of the title. Navarro, who co-wrote the script with Marc Salbert , on whose research the film is based, gives us a series of cliches that nevertheless prove an agreeable gateway to ma...