![]() ![]() ![]() Those bells continue to ring through to the end. Surveying the final damage with sweeping, helicopter-mounted vistas, “Disco Boy” is unambiguous about the thrill of such military adventurism and unsparing about the awful moral toll. In that roundabout way, we find a director wrestling with that familiar and paradoxical question: How do you shoot war without glorying it? Offering his response as capstone to this lethal second act, Abbruzzese grabs a blade and simply cuts the knot. The distance between Poland and Nigeria suddenly collapsed, as if to say, wherever you go, there you are. Underscoring the blunt message with thrillingly blunt-force filmmaking, Abbruzzese orchestrates a series of raids and counter-raids with wanton flair, bathing a pivotal nighttime assault with an infrared glare that obscures predator from prey, and staging a decisive moment between Alex and Jomo on a riverbank seemingly pulled from a previous chapter. Neither aiming for nor interested in subtlety, “Disco Boy” casts both Jomo and Alex as soldiers of fate and pawns of fortune, two sides of the same coin pulled into conflict by capital. Would you be surprised that they side with the Big Oil exploiters? He is, of course, what draws in the French unit. For the first (and only) time, Abbruzzese’s camera leaves the lead behind, focusing instead on Jomo (Morr Ndiaye), a local insurgent leading guerilla attacks against international exploiters. With training and enlistment now complete, Chapter Two takes us into the field, on mission with Alex and his unit in the Niger Delta. Still, as an immersive visual and intellectual spectacle, the film might peak too early. Tense and mesmerized, you feel all the more alert. More soundscape than soundtrack, this metallic dirge plays off cinematographer Hélène Louvart’s decadent lighting schemes to set viewers on edge and replicate that initial rush of walking into a foreboding neon cathedral. Whether traipsing through a Subcarpathian forest as Aleksey or submitting his body to military training as Alex, Rogowski moves to an unrelenting thrum - a low and menacing electro score supplied by French producer Vitalic. Long before Abbruzzese opens Chapter Three on a literal dance floor, “Disco Boy” brims with sinister nocturnal energy. And who knows, after five years of dutiful service, he might just become a French citizen. Awash in a destination no less hostile than the road that led there, Aleksei the migrant becomes Alex the legionnaire. By the time Mikhail gives way to an altogether different foil in Chapter Two, Aleksei himself has also changed. Split into the three chapters with discrete aesthetic and formal approaches, and condensed into a tight 90-minutes that nevertheless covers substantial narrative ground, “Disco Boy” follows what could be called “club logic.” The three chapters introduce as many foils - thematic dance partners whose interplay and interaction with Aleksei reorient his path. The Best Romance Movies of the 21st Century, from 'High Fidelity' to 'Carol' 'Operation Fortune' Review: Aubrey Plaza Kicks Ass in a Throwback Guy Ritchie Thriller New Movies: Release Calendar for March 3, Plus Where to Watch the Latest Films Yet the crossing is not without risk, and by the time our lead winds up a stray dog in Gaul, that travel companion, Mikhail is but a ghost haunting the path. ![]() Why settle on France as the final destination? Well, pourquoi pas? Aleksey has picked up some rudimentary French – “From the movies,” says Rogowski, spitting out his rare lines of dialogue as if poison to be expelled post haste – but for the most part, he simply follows the lead of his more experienced travel partner, Mikhail (Michał Balicki). The actor enters the film as Aleksei, a Belarusian ex-con quietly carving his way through Poland en route to a better life. ![]()
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