An ambling sort of character study (twice over), Disco Boy does deserve some credit for not going in any direction one might guess from that semi-evasive title. No, this is not a coming-of-age story set in the world of nightclubs, although a pair of extended sequences are set in one, after the two main narrative threads have merged into one. Instead, writer/director Giacomo Abbruzzese has fashioned a mood piece set against the backdrop of the French Foreign Legion and the Niger Delta, as the lives of two men from very different regions of the Eastern Hemisphere intertwine via an act of desperation that looks a lot like terrorism.
The more important and distinct voice here belongs to Jomo (Morr Ndiaye), a Nigerian rebel infuriated over the colonial actions of the oil companies whose intrusion into his country has endangered his family and the general populace. In one fascinating scene, an American crew from a popular video-journalism website arrives to question Jomo and his fellow rebels, who play-act a bit of intimidation by firing their weapons into the air and chanting intensely (the crew, of course, is spooked and exits posthaste). Later, Jomo leads a team to kidnap some French nationals and hold them for ransom until the oil companies cease their activities.
There’s an entire movie to be made about this character, and Ndiaye’s performance, which shifts seamlessly from forceful to charismatic, could have carried it. It’s fine work from the actor, but then the character exits the film in a way that won’t be revealed here, although the fact that he crosses paths with Aleksei (Franz Rogowski), a man who has traveled from Poland to join the French military following a hard life and a spate of loneliness, might offer an obvious clue. For some reason, Abbruzzese decides that his story, which begins alongside Alex’s friend and confidant Mikhail (Michal Balicki), is the one on which to hang the action.
This is a most curious decision, as the film does not really decide on a solid basis of perspective for Rogowski’s character. Rogowski, who is quickly becoming one of the more striking actors out of Europe, develops an oddly detached rhythm as we get deeper and deeper into Alex’ story. He’s quite good early on, when a random and brutal death jars him out of a stasis and fuels a desire to join the Legionnaires and fight abroad alongside his brothers in uniform. That leads to a mission in which he faces a conundrum: Follow orders, which might result in the death of innocents, or diverge from them and face the consequences.
Naturally, the movie must follow through on the promise of the odd title, which stems from a conversation between Jomo and one of his men: What kind of man does Jomo imagine himself to be if placed in the shoes of the opposite side – which, not coincidentally, also would involve switching races? The answer is as frustratingly elusive as the scene in which it comes to fruition is striking. Alex dances in a nightclub, after a troubling vision stemming from his guilt-stricken, posttraumatic state places an unwitting victim of that violence in his mind, and Disco Boy loses its way in a rambling series of visual ideas with little attention actually paid to the human cost.
Photo courtesy of Big World Pictures
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