Athena (2022)

December 22, 2022 11:40 PM

Hours after the tragic death of their youngest brother in suspicious circumstances involving the police, three brothers contend with the chaos that erupts in response.

As a sustained piece of action choreography, “Athena” is frequently staggering. As a drama about police violence, the woes of a long-ignored underclass and the complexities of modern French identity, the movie feels thin and overdetermined.
-- Justin Chang, NYT

Athena is a vision of political apocalypse, and it names the enemy while throwing its cinematic hands in the air, along with the camera.
-- Richard Brody, NYer.

The politics are ultimately melioristic, but the action, to the very last minute, is incandescent.
-- Kevin Maher, Times (UK)

RT 85/70 IMDB 6.8

Currently streaming on Netflix. French w/ subtitles.

posted by fleacircus (2 comments total)

This had me gripped from the very first scene and really didn't let up, and then in the final moments it sort of just fizzled and faceplanted, like it had run out of ideas and things to say.
posted by Molesome at 1:00 PM on December 23, 2022 [1 favorite]

This is worth watching for the first sequence alone. The acting is good and sometimes great throughout as well.

The story does falter.. I don't think it really manages its climaxes very well, and for me at least, it tries to cash in too much lingering drawn out drama at the end (like the final confrontation between Abdel and Karim, or and then the carrying scene directly after).

Sometimes people talk about cinematic spectacle being energizing or enough on its own, and it's for movies I wouldn't really agree about, but this movie is a bit like that for me.
posted by fleacircus at 1:03 PM on December 23, 2022