InRO Weekly — Volume 1, Issue 16

FILM REVIEWS
have been bleached and color-corrected within an inch of their
life. Oh wait, Ritchie does this one thing where the camera slowly
zooms in on someone when they are speaking, then it slowly — or
sometimes even quickly — zooms out again within the same
shot. Spielberg, take notes. Jokes aside, the director utilizes this
move to the point of unintentional comedy, repeated ad nauseam
across the film’s runtime.
Faring no better is Gyllenhaal, who delivers what might be the
worst performance of his career, an approximation of machismo
that feels forced by half. Salim at least brings some much-need
gravitas to a sorely under-written role, but there is no depth to be
found in the characterization, simply archetypes that exist in
service of some good old-fashioned, “America, fuck yeah!” But
wait, maybe there is actually more to this movie. After all,
on-screen text at the film’s end states that Afghani interpreters
who were abandoned upon the U.S.’s withdrawal from the country
in 2021 are still being hunted by members of the Taliban, who see
them as traitors. Perhaps Ritchie is attempting to shed light upon
a horrifying consequence of American imperialism and the
military-industrial complex, using and disposing of those
individuals whose lives the U.S. was supposedly there to protect.
Scratch that: the end credits also include lots of photos of
nameless — and in most cases, faceless — American soldiers
posing with who we are to assume are Afghani interpreters.
There are even a few smiles here and there. That this all scans
just as profoundly hollow and borderline insulting as everything
else that preceded it shouldn’t come as much of a surprise.
Indeed, there is nary one to be found in this particular Covenant,
Guy Ritchie’s or otherwise. — STEVEN WARNER
DIRECTOR: Guy Ritchie; CAST: Jake Gyllenhaal, Dar Salim,
Alexander Ludwig, Antony Starr; DISTRIBUTOR: United Artists; IN
THEATERS: April 21; RUNTIME: 2 hr. 3 min.
CHEVALIER
Stephen Williams
In July 2020, The New York Times published an article by
composer and music composition professor Marcos Balter that
criticized the notion of calling Joseph Bologne “Black Mozart.” A
versatile genius and all-time classical music great in his own
right, Bologne could do better than be reduced in comparison to
an “arbitrary white standard.” Director Stephen Williams’ latest
outing, Chevalier, opens with a concert scene written to
essentially argue that very thing. Bologne, embodied dutifully by
Kelvin Harrison Jr., saunters onstage after Mozart concludes a
song, asking to join him in a duet. He promptly steals the show,
to the crowd’s amazement and Mozart’s consternation. As biopics
go, Chevalier isn’t particularly revolutionary stuff, but there’s a
sincerity in its desire to function as a character study and a
celebration that pushes it past flatly generic territory.
Bologne is the son of a wealthy, white French planter and an
enslaved Black woman. His father dumps him in an academy at a
young age, demanding his son pursue excellence while
abandoning him and the disgrace that he represented. By the
time Harrison Jr. steps into Bologne’s shoes, he’s already a
burgeoning virtuoso and friend of Marie Antoinette (Lucy
Boynton), his sophistication a shield and his arrogance
notorious. When he sets his sights on the vacant conductor
position at the Paris Opera, he taps Marie-Josephine de
Montalembert (Samara Weaving) to sing in the lead role.
Meanwhile, revolution is brewing in France, and Bologne learns
that, while his gifts may elevate him, they aren’t enough to earn
him equal treatment.
Chevalier is fittingly operatic in style, its Paris setting elaborately
curated, the exteriors sun-drenched, interiors candlelit. The
soundtrack kicks in on cue, and the penchant for rotational slow
pans creates an atmosphere that, while never feeling prestige,
has an occasional woozy elegance. And everyone seems to be
having fun in their roles, the period characters always
immaculately dressed, trading barbs Bridgerton-style. But at the
end of the day, Chevalier really is a star vehicle. Bologne is the
only character the script cares to fully realize, and Harrison Jr.
reliably commands in the role. Whether Bologne is poised,
pensive, or pained, Harrison Jr. is diligent in his performance, his
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