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★★★★★
29 November 2017
A movie review of JUPITER’S MOON. |
“There is no safe space from the injustices of history,” Dr Gabor Stern (Merab Ninidze)
The best superhero film of 2017, by a country mile, is a Hungarian action-thriller about a Syrian refugee being hunted by the authorities. This is what the genre has been missing since THE DARK KNIGHT: Stakes, real world relevance and bravura filmmaking. The comic book movie is now boringly formulaic. Every so often, an original work, not based on any already existing intellectual property, like UNBREAKABLE or CHRONICLE, comes along and shakes things up.
The best superhero film of 2017, by a country mile, is a Hungarian action-thriller about a Syrian refugee being hunted by the authorities. This is what the genre has been missing since THE DARK KNIGHT: Stakes, real world relevance and bravura filmmaking. The comic book movie is now boringly formulaic. Every so often, an original work, not based on any already existing intellectual property, like UNBREAKABLE or CHRONICLE, comes along and shakes things up.
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Too many people in wealthy nations have no concern for refugees. Those who say phrases like “Look after our own first” are the sorts of people who have no concern for anybody. They lack basic empathy. Empathy can be taught. You just need to be receptive.
Cinema tends to be seen too often as just an escape from the daily grind. Maybe if people voted for humanistic political parties, who cared about proper wages and a decent work-life balance, the resultant humane employment environments would give them the energy to avoid mainstream brainless movies? This is not the 1970s silver screen heyday; hard-hitting films do not reach the same size audiences as blockbusters and genre fare unfortunately. Thus, it is a wise and skilful filmmaker who meshes the thoughtful with the exhilarating.
Director Kornél Mundruczó is the new Alfonso Cuarón. JUPITER’S MOON has breathtaking action sequences underpinned by politics, as with CHILDREN OF MEN. Trigger-happy detention camp commander László (György Cserhalmi) guns down Syrian refugee Aryan Dashni (Zsombor Jéger) in cold blood. Aryan not only survives but gains the ability to levitate. The flying sequences have the hypnotic, ethereal fluidity of GRAVITY. Fans of virtuoso cinema will be dazzled. Enhancing matters is composer Jed Kurzel’s pulse-thumping score, reminding of his work on the underrated ASSASSIN’S CREED.
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Set piece after set piece, from foot pursuit to car chases, wow. Even dialogue scenes bristle with energy as the purposefully restless camera follows the characters – think even more slick than THE WEST WING’s walk and talk.
JUPITER’S MOON is not just superficial thrills, it is a mirror held up to Europe. Hateful anti-immigration, the jaded and selfish are looked at. The commentary is wide-ranging, even euthanasia is touched upon. Spiritualism is also present, in the same way as the under-appreciated THE GREEN MILE.
JUPITER’S MOON is one of my films of 2017.
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