by Joseph Davis, Contributing Writer

I’m a sucker for a movie with long, uncut shots. If you can transition your story from place to place and make me at least think that the past 10 to 20 minutes were all in one take, action and all, you’ll inherently have my attention. This fact is what drew me to the 2022 French movie Athena for this month’s Out of Market. With an opening sequence that, while cut, feels as if it all was done in a single take, my attention was already set, but the story was one I was curious about. Set in the aftermath of the death of our three central characters’ youngest brother, this story focuses on the immediate aftermath of the event, set over the span of the next few hours of their lives.

I want to start out by going more in depth into the way this film is shot. I believe I have said before that a lot of films can be made or broken by how well the camerawork is executed, and this movie nails it. The camerawork helps to build the tension, as a call for peace is immediately interrupted by an assault and a call to action, and this helps set the stage for the remainder of the film. As the events of the film kick off, and the youngest of the brothers starts a riot in response to his brother’s death, the one-shot nature of the film makes his efforts to lead the youth working with him all the more emphasized and chaotic. Coupled with the middle of the three brothers trying to quell the violence and keep from losing any more family, this is fed by the way the camera is used and by how the film is shot. In many ways, it barely gives you any time to rest between moments, but when it does, it allows for emotions to hit when they need to and to emphasize the story happening on screen. 

As for the story, as I said before, it hammers itself home in more ways than one. It’s simple in the fact that the brothers are responding to the death of their youngest sibling in their own ways. One wants vengeance and justice against those who committed the act, while another wants justice as well, but at what cost? The way everyone intertwines in the story, and where they end up at each beat, feels largely perfect. Even as a member of the police who is captured is put into play, it manages to show a way to subvert expectations on characters and bring an already chaotic movie to a head. It helps underscore the differences between each side and the underlying motivations of the two youngest siblings.

The one downside of this movie for me relates a bit to the brothers. With the two youngest siblings I have no issue. Their story and conflict build off each other with ease and make the climax all the more tense. However, the third and oldest brother feels out of place. I can somewhat see the angle they could pull, of someone who wants out, but it doesn’t feel organic. While his younger siblings’ fates seem all but certain in the end, his fate feels more up in the air, and I honestly could care less if we ever got an answer. If his story was cleaned up some, or was altogether removed, it would help elevate this already fantastic movie by a huge amount.

Overall, I would highly recommend Athena for an American audience. It’s action-packed, it doesn’t let up, and it subverts expectations during the climax. Every moment is one that I can’t help but wonder what is going to happen next, and I was definitely shocked by how it ended. It’s not necessarily a film where you should expect a happy ending, but the journey is more than worth it.

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