Toronto After Dark 2009 – Black

Black

Directed by Pierre Laffargue

A strange, tonally schizophrenic, but undeniably fun concoction from France, Black combines elements of gangster and blaxploitation films, only to wind up in a different space entirely by throwing in supernatural elements with the subtlety of a machete to the face.. If that description appeals to you, you’ll almost certainly enjoy it. Its shortcomings, stemming from failures of executiion rather than ambition or imagination, scream “first feature,” but there’s enough sheer entertainment value on display to let it slide.

MC Jean Gab’1 stars as the title character, a tough-talking but ultimately sympathetic thief who spends the film’s thrilling opening minutes escaping a heist gone wrong. While in hiding, an obscure “relative” from Dakar, Black’s hometown, lets him in on a huge and theoretically simple score, involving lifting a sack of diamonds from a bank vault. Of course, as it turns out, Black and his crew aren’t the only ones after the loot, and before long Black and a feisty Interpol agent (Carole Karemera) are at war with a manic French warlord, his ambitious partner, and a whole lot of goons. Some of whom have machetes.

The highlight of Laffargue’s film, besides the kicking retro funk score, is the easygoing Gab’1, who develops a playful, combative chemistry with Karemera and navigates the film’s many stylistic diversions nicely. Speaking of diversions, know that while much of the film deals in a slightly bent form of Blaxsploitation by way of Euro arthouse, proceedings take a sharp left turn in the third act, which will guarantee that, at the very least, you won’t be bored – though the late-film montage summarising the fates of certain characters is incredibly frantic and needlessly confusing.

Simon Howell