Night Call arrives on Digital Download today from Vertigo Releasing in the UK.
The Black Lives Matter movement is the one campaign that’s had the most impact on me as an American of color. Police brutality is a constant spotlight issue for me away from the glitz and glam, and escapism of cinema, so as a regular viewer of YouTube shows like “Indisputable with Dr. Rashad Richey” and the like, you can probably imagine my reaction to someone like filmmaker Michiel Blanchart whose directorial debut, Night Call, dares to tackle the kind of subject matter it does here.
To be clear, when I look at most filmmakers lending an eye to certain topical subjects at the core of their work – i.e. the late Dennis Hopper’s Colors, or David Ayer’s Street Kings, or even Ryan Coogler’s Fruitvale Station, I have to remind myself that these working men aren’t exactly on a mission to “save the world” per se. It is feasible, however, to note their efforts in planting seeds to help drive thought in their respective audiences – ideas like acknowledging the sight, and the rights, of a black person in today’s society throughout various parts of the world.
Blanchart’s Night Call doesn’t play too heavily on these kinds of themes. Rather, they do serve as part of the ambience in his otherwise propulsive and moving thriller, telling a story that – in my view – challenges viewers to think a little bit about what they’re seeing, and what it all means. I will say though, that I saw this film on Friday evening, and it still left me lingering on the latter a little, even while dismissing any of the aforementioned modifiers.
Actor Jonathan Feltre’s performance is a physically and emotionally enduring one, leading the roster for a slew of gripping performances by the rest of the cast. Mady (Feltre) is a young parttime student with a spotty past who works nights as a locksmith. It’s a rousing night, however, on the streets of Belguim as a Black Lives Matter protest is heavily underway, and imaginably, the cops are tacked-up the neck to escalate at any moment’s notice.
Needless to say, however, it’s just another night for Mady, a guy just trying to stay on the straight-and-narrow. Far be it for a mysterious and charismatic woman named Claire (Natacha Krief) to contribute in that regard, she instead summons Mady for help to get inside an apartment presumed to be hers. What Mady doesn’t realize, however, is that he’s about to be in for perhaps the worst night he’s ever seen, when it turns out that Claire’s ask was nothing more than a ruse at his expense.
Leaving with a black bag in hand and leaving Mady alone under the presumption of payment, it is only a matter of moments before Mady is attacked by the complex’s maniacal owner, who also happens to be part of a criminal organization. The incident results in the first of a slew of unrelenting and violent moments throughout the movie as Mady is captured by two more men and put before Yannick (Romain Duris), and propositioned with no choice but to help the white collar criminal find the bag – and the girl – or face dire consequences.
Blanchart’s feature directing debut pulls you in from the near very start as Mady is forced to trek the streets with Yannick’s men, while unraveling the mystery behind Claire and the bag himself. This troubling trajectory tends to get our protagonist cornered in places where he has to think fast and on his feet no matter how impossible the exits may be. Other times he has to face trouble head on, leading to tense clashes and explosive chase sequences on wheels and on foot.
Blanchart crafts a thriller that mesmerizes when it can. I love that he delivers such an energetic thriller with a narrative visage that bodes as timely and palpable as ever. Feltre, and co-stars Krief and Duris, and actor Jonas Bloquet who plays one of Yannick’s men, outline a story full of intensity, nuance, and emotion, revealing a compelling tale of people in desperate situations on both sides of the crime spectrum.
When we meet Mady, he’s busy just working and staying out of trouble. It’s not until the shit hits the fan and the movie sees its first dead body that Mady can be seen trying to use the local store’s phone to call the police for help, before gazing at the television presenting clear as day the echoing abuse and intolerance of the city’s already prevalent police prevalence and instead deciding to take matters in his own hands. It’s the only moment in the movie in which the viewer gets the sharpest glimpse into where our protagonist stands on current events right then, and it’s one of the strongest moments of the film early on.
Night Call also compels you to see things through the lens of its other players – characters whose actions have all but endangered Mady’s life in ways that otherwise wouldn’t have been if they just left him alone. To this, it certainly feels like Blanchart, and co-writer Gilles Marchand try to add some more dimensions to Mady, and to the narrative as a whole, and in some ways, it works quite collectively. We see this in how the movie transitions largely from a story of one man trying to survive the night and holding people accountable, to choosing whether or not saving his own life is worth risking that of another.
I suppose this sort of paradoxical thought is what fuels interesting discourse about any movie, and so it’s anyone’s guess as to whether Night Call truly meets its ends. I love the movie as a top-to-bottom thriller, and I find the film’s last-minute moral dilemma faced by Feltre’s character to be an intriguing bookend on characterization for this particular tale. I’m just not sure if it was necessary, but perhaps I’m thinking a little too realistically in gauging the dynamics here. Regardless, I thoroughly appreciate Blanchart’s applications here as a well thought-out, evenly paced and toned story, one that ultimately adheres to the kind of permanence that makes crime noirs like Night Call so palpable and, perhaps, worth the ceremony they earn.
