If your idea
of French film is a bunch of bourgeois people sitting around arguing the
fine points of relationships, politics, and poststructuralist theory,
think again. "The Magnet" is a gritty little film from the streets
of Marseille that wants to illuminate a subculture most people don't readily
associate with the French Riviera.
Rappers Kamel
Saleh and Akhenaton's debut film follows a bunch of loafers through their
days as they cheat on their girls, scam their way into second-rate clubs,
sell boxes full of rocks disguised as stolen stereo equipment, evade the
flics, and sit on bistro chairs as if their work-shy butts were magnets.
These guys
are born in France, but since their skin isn't white they're treated like
foreigners who don't belong, and we are made to understand that their
frustration, anger, and aimlessness has its roots in their disenfranchisement.
Even the girls they sleep with vote National Front - no wonder these guys
are pissed off. In the scene that rings with the most truth, one of the
characters gets furious over a car locking its doors and driving off just
because he crossed the street.
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Nonetheless,
sympathy for the outcast wasn't enough to keep my attention for the duration
of the film. None of the ragtag band is ever seen doing anything nice,
and when disappointed girlfriends leave them and angry fathers kick them
out on the street, you have to wonder if they don't have a point.
Mistreatment
doesn't excuse everything. I mean, these guys are incapable of passing
strange women without harassing them, they betray their friends as a matter
of fact, and they steal money from children.
I'm a firm
believer in the rule that any movie where people drive aimlessly through
the night is a good movie, especially if it has a kickin' hip-hop soundtrack.
But here, the episodes are too scattershot, the tone is too uneven, and
the characters aren't likable enough for the story ever to accumulate
any narrative momentum, or much interest. Comme un Aimant wants
to be a gritty eye-opening film about a bunch of likeable underdogs, but
all I saw was meandering meanness prowling the streets. My advice: lock
your doors.
Written
and directed by Kamel Saleh and Akhenaton; in French, with English subtitles;
director of photography, Denis Rouden; edited by Fabrice Sallinié;
music by Bruno Coulais and Akhenaton; produced by Richard Grandpierre.
Running time: 100 minutes. This film is not rated.
Cast:
Kamel Saleh (Cahuete), Houari Djerir (Houari), Brahim Aimad (Bra-Bra),
Sofiane Madjid Mammeri (Christian), Kamel Ferrat (Fouad), Titoff (Santino),
Akhenaton (Sauveur) and Malek Brahimi (Kakou).
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