Movie Review: Les Miserables

Les Misérables **** / *****

Directed by: Ladj Ly.

Written by: Ladj Ly & Giordano Gederlini & Alexis Manenti.

Starring: Damien Bonnard (Brigadier Stéphane Ruiz, dit Pento), Alexis Manenti (Chris), Djibril Zonga (Gwada), Issa Perica (Issa), Al-Hassan Ly (Buzz), Steve Tientcheu (Le Maire), Almamy Kanoute (Salah), Nizar Ben Fatma (La Pince), Raymond Lopez (Zorro), Luciano Lopez (Luciano), Jaihson Lopez (Jaihson), Jeanne Balibar (La commissaire), Sana Joachaim (Bintou), Lucas Omiri (Slim), Rocco Lopez (Rocco), Diego Lopez (Diego), Omar Soumare (Macha), Abdelkader Hogguy (Amar), Djeneba Diallo (Mère Issa), Abiatou Château (Sadjo), Fodjé Sissoko (Jojo), Mousba Harb (Mère Gwada), Améline Fanta Gandega (Maman africaine), Sofia Lesaffre (Lycéenne), Marine Sainsily (Femme Chris), Alexandre Picot (Bob). 

 

Ladj Ly’s narrative debut film, Les Miserables, takes its name from the Victor Hugo classic, because it takes place in the same area of Paris that Hugo observed all that time ago – and which Ly is observing now. While much has changed in the intervening years, also very little has changed – the police are still oppressing the poor, who eventually are going to get fed up and rise up in violent protest. The faces have changed; the story remains the same.

 

The film focuses on a trio of cops who patrol the largely black, largely Muslim, largely immigrant community that they don’t really understand. It is Stephane’s (Damien Bonnard) first day with this group – and he’s going to get an education on what “these streets” mean, that will clash with his own code of right and wrong. He isn’t a rookie cop – but he’s just transferred in from the suburbs, so of course he doesn’t “get it”. Chris (Alexis Manenti) is the leader of the trio – and you know all you need to know of him when you discover his nickname is “Pink Pig” – and he embraces it. He is a collection of misogyny and racism – and gets off on his power. When he frisks a trio of teenage girls, it’s more because he can then anything else. His longtime partner is Gwada (Djibril Zonga) – who grew up in this area, but if he once had the idealism we see in Stephane, it’s gone now. The film opens on a scene of unity – as we see young Issa (Issa Perica) and his friends celebrating as France wins the World Cup. Everyone is happy then – everyone is “French” – but it won’t be long before he’s back in his area – and the police will be back to their old ways – with Issa at the heart of it.

 

The film owes an obvious debt to Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing – it basically takes place over one long day in this area, where tensions start to mount until they reach a point where they going to explode. Ly doesn’t even try to hide this very much – he even has a character known as the Mayor – not a real Mayor, but a kind of guy who keeps a watchful eye over everything, and keeps people in line (although he’s more corrupt than Ossie Davis’ Da Mayor in Lee’s film).

 

Ly does make some weird story choices in the film though – none more so than the inciting incident being the theft of a lion cub for the circus that is passing through town. Why he does this is beyond me – but it is rather silly at times. Issa is, of course, the thief – the sort of stupid childish thing kids do (the trio of cops figure it out seeing Issa’s post on Instagram). This leads to conflict – which will end with Gwada firing a flashbang into Issa’s face – it won’t kill him, but will leave him bloody and banged up. But it is Chris who goes insane in the wake of this – figuring out that another kid with a drone filmed the whole thing, which leads Chris to go on the attack to track it down – lest the video come up, and tensions explode.

 

They are going to anyway – Issa, who we first see as a mischievous, yet smiling child will become permanently changed by this. His bloody face by the end is no longer smiling, and he is not going to stop being angry every again. And not just at the cops – but at the whole system that runs his neighborhood.

 

The violence that ends Les Miserables is visceral and exciting and a long time coming. It does feel more than a little reverse engineered to get there than actually occurring naturally (perhaps because other than Issa, none of the other children really stand out as characters). But like in Spike Lee’s film, the villain here is just the individual cops – they are only so responsible for the corrupt system in which they operate. Even Stephane, who we see an idealist, is far from innocent here. Even his view of the status quo isn’t good enough for these kids – won’t leave them unharmed. There are so clumsy moments in Ly’s film – but it’s power and anger are justify those missteps along the way, and lead to a film that is tough to shake.