A young student in Brussels moonlighting as a locksmith finds himself in a desperate bid to survive the night when a routine job puts him in the crosshairs of a vicious mobster in writer/director Michiel Blanchart’s adrenaline-fueled feature debut Night Call. Blanchart’s stylized action-thriller maintains a propulsive pace, rendering a bad work day into a harrowing bid to evade death, with a few overt nods to horror along the white knuckle journey. While it adheres to a familiar formula and its tumultuous Black Lives Matter protests backdrop feels more of a narrative crutch than meaningful, its winsome lead, kinetic staging, and palpable stakes ensure a gripping watch.
It’s clear from the moment he’s introduced that Mady (Jonathan Feltre) is a pure-hearted, trusting soul just trying to make it through his shift. He’s also exhausted. It’s why Mady doesn’t suspect that the woman, Claire (Natacha Krief), who’s been locked out of her apartment, might be lying about whether she actually lives there. He overlooks the signs that something is deeply amiss, including Claire’s promises to run to the ATM so she can pay him for his work while he waits there. It’s while Mady waits for her that the apartment’s true tenant arrives. A fight to the death ensues, but Mady’s bad night will only get worse as he’s captured by ruthless crime boss Yannick (Romain Duris) and tasked with retrieving what Claire took from him under the supervision of right-hand man Theo (The Nun‘s Jonas Bloquet). That Mady only has until sunrise to complete this mission or face death kickstarts a ticking time bomb.
Despite a nonstop barrage of thrilling set pieces and bone-crunching action sequences, Blanchart reels in viewers with morally complex yet relatable characters. Feltre’s Mady makes for a charming underdog whose simple miscalculation opens up a world of hurt. Mady isn’t your conventional action hero; this is a young student with a kind disposition but zero combat skills. That fish-out-of-water aspect primes Mady as the perfect audience proxy into this seedy underworld, but Night Call‘s magic is in the way it muddies his once pure sense of morality. Mady is consistently forced to weigh his options and decide how much of his captor’s amoral behavior he should match if he hopes to live, and Feltre is more than capable of conveying the nuanced complexity of this conundrum.
Feltre’s frequent scene partner, Bloquet, also helps. Much like Bloquet’s affable Frenchie in The Nun films, Theo is the rough-around-the-edges type with a gooey soft center. Well, to an extent. Theo has personal stakes in Mady’s quest, and the push-and-pull between Theo and Mady drives the narrative forward at a steady clip.
Blanchart drew inspiration from a real-life Black Lives Matter protest turned violent for his feature debut, yet the filmmaker shies away from getting too political or using this backdrop to make a statement. Instead, it feels more like a crutch for plotting’s sake and heightening tension. Mady, a black man trying to evade his white captors, for example, chooses not to phone the police at a critical moment. The film’s climax also features a moment that speaks directly to the period, though fails to achieve the intended impact. Mady’s too removed from the world at large, isolated by his plight, to integrate a brisk, entertaining action-thriller with disconnected real-world themes.
Even still, Blanchart’s high-octane debut makes for a dazzling and entertaining ride. There’s enough violence and bloodshed to appeal to genre fans, including The Evil Dead playing on TV in a scene featuring almost a cartoonish amount of violence amidst thug ineptitude. While it’s likely a nod to Sam Raimi, who is producing a feature-length version of Blachart’s short film You’re Dead Hélène, there is a sense of playful mischief to Blanchart’s brand of violence that earns that reference. More importantly, it marks him as a filmmaker to watch.
Night Call is out in theaters now.