Prompted by Jason Di Rosso's interview with director/co-writer Matteo Garrone (Gomorrah (2008)). It took me a few goes to get into.
Two young blokes from Senegal want to make it as pop stars in Europe and pay some people smugglers to make it happen. The journey is predictably rough initially but the latter half is somehow smoother, perhaps because it becomes more of a collective endeavour with manifestly real stakes and lead Seydou Sarr grows into it. The dashes of magic realism are welcome but insufficient. The final scene off the coast of Sicily is euphoric but surely what follows would be nasty. IMDB tells me that Casablanca stood in for Tripoli.
Katie Rife at Roger Ebert's venue: two-and-a-half stars. Oscar bait. A Critic's Pick by Manohla Dargis.
