Harefooted Halloween: Saloum

What I Liked: Good setup where we have a group of mercenaries who are in the midst of their getaway after stealing some gold when their plane goes down.  Now they’re stranded in middle of nowhere Saloum, Senegal.  While staying in the tiny local town they try to keep cool but something seems off and new obstacles keep popping up like a cop who’s passing through.  So intrigue and tension build quickly.

The characters and performances are pretty nice too.  Our set of bandits each have their own personality like the mystical one with long white deadlocks, the brute with his mohawk who’s always smoking and chewing gum at the same time (gross), and the charmer who tends to keep his leather gloves on, even at dinner, and has a smile a mile wide.  I like these guys because they each offer a unique skill and seem to genuinely care for each other.

A lot of the time the cinematography is well done.  The African landscape plays a big role and they put the beauty of the desert, rivers and bush on full display.

What I Didn’t Like: This is tricky to talk about without going into spoilers but I’ll do my best.  There’s a point where you’ll either stick with the movie or you’ll take the off-ramp and honestly it kinda lost me.  I think I sorta understood what was happening but there isn’t a ton of explanation.  Of course the supernatural stuff could be well known mythology in African culture that I’m just not familiar with so maybe the filmmakers felt they didn’t need to hit you over the head.  Or maybe it’s perfectly clear and I’m just an idiot.

Overall Impressions: The way I feel about this picture is how I’m sure some folks feel about From Dusk Till Dawn, I kinda wish they stuck with the gritty crime thriller the whole way through.  Sure, there were issues with it but I found it more engaging than where the story ultimately goes.  A decent number of rewrites would’ve helped to flesh the characters and plot out more.  The whole thing comes and goes so fast (under 90 mins, which I usually praise) that it’s not enough time to lock in and get acquainted. 

There’s definitely a bunch of cool shit in here though.  There’s an almost Scorsese level of energy to it at times with the shot and editing choices.  And most of the performances are fun.  They’re characters I want to hang with.  Unfortunately it doesn’t totally come together for me in the end.