Reims Polar 2024: an opening by experts
It successfully made it through the 2023 Deauville Festival before arriving in Reims to open the 4th edition of the Reims Crime Film Festivalthe very accomplished LaRoy by Shane Atkinson ticks all the boxes for a successful opening. His screening was followed by speeches by Arnaud Robinet, mayor of Reims, and Didier Barde, director of the festival.
The Italian actress Valeria Golino, guest of honor at this Reims Polar 2024 and expected at this opening ceremony, unfortunately had a last minute impediment but should join the other professionals and cinema talents present at the event very soon, which will last until Sunday 14 April.
Among these professionals of the 7th art, here are the ones who make up the juries competition AND New Blood Competition :
Competition Jury
The screenwriter Danièle Thompson (president), the actresses Camille Chamoux and Laetitia Dosch, the writer and screenwriter Caryl Férey, the screenwriter, director and actress Noémie Lvovsky, and finally the screenwriters and directors Arnaud des Pallières and Nicolas Pariser.
Jury of the New Blood Competition
The journalist and director François Busnel (president), the actress Céleste Brunnquell, the screenwriter and director Stéphane Foenkinos, the actor Pablo Pauly and the actress Linh-Dan Pham.
LaRoya very successful first feature film
The first idea of LaRoy is fantastic. Just as he is about to shoot himself in the head, humiliated and deceived, mocked for his apparent weakness, a too simple man is mistaken for an expert hitman. Here he is stuck in a spiral in which the violence is as crazy as it constitutes a universe in which great moral baseness holds the walls.
The director, present in Reims, concluded his short presentation by explaining that his film was based on films he loved. It is therefore not surprising LaRoy thus shouts all his love for the black cinema of the Coen brothers, and for his masterpiece Fargo. It’s really an homage to his darkness and his moral complexity, and especially his humor.
The kindness and goodness of the main character, Ray (John Magaro), is opposed to the petty lure of a little gain from those close to him, who are more stupid than truly evil. There is a real villain though LaRoy, the real hitman – and now well-known figure of Evil, cynical, insensitive and imperturbable – played by a formidable Dylan Baker. After all, it is about him that it opens LaRoy, with a brilliant introduction in the form of a moral fable that indicates that one should not trust appearances or enjoy being clever. A sequence that demonstrates all the know-how in writing, in the management of light and shadow – in the literal and figurative sense – and in the editing of LaRoy.
Inspired cast for a brilliant crime comedy
Everything happens against his will to Ray, the model antihero who observes the action much more than he leads it. Murderer despite himself, trampled despite himself, it is still despite himself that he finds himself associated with Skip, the excellent Steve Zahn, an apprentice detective very excited by the incredible case that presents itself to him. He’s funny, a bit stupid – he gets made fun of too -, and in his comic outbursts we can sometimes read the awareness of being a failure. Their duo is therefore one of the great qualities of the film, a touching association due to the budding friendship these two losers have for each other. And very effective on a dramatic level because Skip is neither afraid nor doubtful about anything.
Without trying too hard to stand out, nature photography by LaRoy it serves perfectly to convey the sadness and mediocrity of LaRoy and its inhabitants, a very remote place in Texas where nothing really happens. The seedy motels host illicit activities, the car dealership is run by a caricatured boss, the deserted roads cut through a stony desert. A neo-western setting that Shane Atkinson exploits perfectly to make LaRoy the setting for an exciting thriller, everything that is darkest, both in the ideas of his characters and in his humor.
Source: Cine Serie
Ray Ortiz is a journalist at Gossipify, known for his coverage of trending news and current events. He is committed to providing readers with accurate and unbiased reporting, and is respected for his ability to keep readers informed on the latest news and issues.
