Popular reviews

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  Review by matt lynch ★★★

  Formally pretty astonishing, narratively pretty wearisome.

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  Review by Mario Alegre ★★★½ 9

  Gavras manages to pull off what is easily the best opening shot of 2022 *AND* the worst closing shot of the year. Woof. What a cowardly and treacherous way to drop the ball on the 1 yard line after such an incendiary ride.

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  Review by davidehrlich ★★½

  Pardon my French, but the first shot of Romain Gavras’ “Athena” — a sketch of a Greek tragedy transplanted into a housing project on the outskirts of Paris — is absolutely fucking insane. Even in a digital age where dazzling long-takes have become a dime a dozen (and all too easy to fake), the oner that ignites this roman candle of a movie about a police siege on a poor neighborhood is something else. It stands out for its fiery violence, for the ground that it covers, and for the incandescent energy that explodes off the screen like the molotov cocktail that Karim (Sami Slimane) hurls into a crowd of cops and reporters who’ve gathered for a press conference at…

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  Review by Patrick Willems ★★★★ 10

  I hope Iñárritu watches this and takes notes

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  Review by Syaoran ★½ 16

  I doubt anything can topped that incredible opening sequence for this year. It was the perfect way to set the tone for the entirety of a film. I was so close to putting Athena as one of my favorites films for this year... until that final scene. Then, I felt angry, disappointed, and betrayed. All of its potential to be great was somehow flushed down into an abyss.

  If only this film had the balls to fully commit to its political stance, then this would have been an impactful and stronger film.

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  Review by AdamAB ★★★★½ 8

  Athena is a technical marvel with an unflinching grasp on its dynamic spectacle. Preoccupied with a subject of great poignance, director Romain Gavras captures ferocious rebellion with a confidence rarely seen in modern cinema. The most astounding thing about the picture is that it (mostly) manages to sustain the incredible intensity infused by its hypnotic opening. 

  Ill-judged ending aside, this is one of the best films of the year, so of course it has just been dumped on Netflix with very little marketing. Athena is a piece of work crying out to be viewed on the biggest screen possible.

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  Review by BeHaind ★★★½ 11

  Der erste Shot ist überirdisch. Zumal er rund 10 Minuten lang läuft. Ungebrochen. Es gibt viele Plansequenzen im modernen Kino, so gut wie immer ist das Ergebnis beeindruckend. Aber was Romain Gavras hier zündet, ist nicht weniger als ein berauschendes Feuerwerk aus bengalischen Fackeln, wütenden Menschen und Bildern, die von konsequenter Kinetik getragen werden. Und da beginnt der Film erst.

  Romain Gavras scheint ein Mann mit ordentlich Wut im Bauch zu sein. Als Musikvideo-Regisseur hat er für Künstler wie „Justice“ oder „MIA“ gleich mehrere Werke gedreht, in denen Gewalt als Ausdruck von Anarchie und Widerstand gezeichnet wird. „Athena“ ist wieder so ein Werk - infernalisch wütend und aufgeladen mit purer Energie, erzählt er in einem der Pariser Banlieues von desillusionierter…

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  Review by softboiledegg ★ 6

  This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

  How dare they make a film about police brutality WITHOUT REALLY CRITICISING POLICE BRUTALITY???!!! The message in the end being „oh, it wasn’t the police after all, it was ring-wing terrorists“ - AS IF RIGHT-WING TERRORISTS WEREN‘T PART OF THE POLICE!!!! How they portrayed the police behaving is so far from the truth!! They literally only ever showed the youth being violent, as if there weren’t hundreds of videos of police beating up POC??!?!? This a joke and so disrespectful, can’t believe anyone thought this film would be okay to make like this. They cared more about their pretty cinematic explosions and their fight scenes than they did about the message behind it

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  Review by Anurag Kashyap 5

  Dynamic , Muscular filmmaking .. a total adrenaline rush.

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  Review by izzy ★★★★ 6

  one star less bc of that last 20 seconds

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  Review by Matt Neglia ★★★★ 1

  ATHENA is such a muscular flex of filmmaking from Romain Gavras. A propulsive & adrenaline-pumping modern Greek tragedy with several jaw-dropping tracking shots & chaotic displays of civil unrest in Paris. The impressive work from Dali Benssalah gives the story its dramatic weight. Dialogue could’ve been a bit less forceful but I’d be lying if I said my heart wasn’t racing the whole time.

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  Review by Brian Formo ★★★

  I'm incredibly conflicted about Athena. There were moments where my brain would fire into "this is the best movie of the year" and then the long take would stop and that would fade away; by the time the third act came the spark was out. I was on a constant wave in and wave out with Romain Gavras' film. The imagery and tension are awe inspiring. But what I keep coming back to is the lack of human interest here. Which ultimately creates a disconnect at best. At worst it reveals a sort of protest lust. The music vid-ification of resistance. Long takes have become shorthand for a lack of ideas or desire to communicate with the audience beyond a…