Thanks for the memories!

From my favorite movies..

Just intense enough to provide a much-needed diversion, just lightweight enough to make you forget about it soon after it’s over. It’s not exactly “good,” per se, but it does what it sets out to do in terms of putting us on edge, which makes it … successful?

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

This is for sure one of the best French movie in last 20-30 years. The other two would be the Blue is the warmest color and The Piano Teacher. But it is not easy to digest the Prophet, when the screen is over, and when you start thinking about it. While everything in the seemingly goes the way the viewer would like to, at the some time, the evil is just starting in the end of the story, because the new mega criminal is born. Malik is, actually, a really nice guy, humble, quite and eager to hear a nice word from anyone. But he is not getting it from almost anyone. Actually anyone who is nice to him can become his friend. By chance, he is forced to choose between killing someone and being killed. And he chooses the first option. That is how he becomes a part of the prison gang, and a type of criminal whose life is worth nothing. It seems he was predestined to that, since his birth, because he grew up in correctional facility, without family. The most unconvincing part of the story is exactly that original kindness and innocence of his. We find him as a pretty naive boy at the age of 18, too naive for a guy who had a difficult life from his birth. Hard to believe that such a naive guy would survive and catch up with the worst crimes so quickly, But that is being explained by his abnormal intelligence and intuition. So, this is not just a next door small criminal, it is a real jewel thrown in a horrible place. If you look at the story from this point of view, its believable. But then we open a different question: are people with abnormal abilities allowed to kill, whenever necessary? Malik is cute, quiet and likable, but he is dangerous and notorious like hell, when faced with the danger for himself. Where is the moral of the story? How should we identify with it? Kill and betray before somebody else betrays and kills you? Where is the line not to cross?

Crime movie about an Arab immigrant Malik surviving in a French prison by gaining protection from a prominent gang and climbing up the ranks ..His initiations include assassinating an Arab snitch in his cell by posing as a male lover, doing secret meetings and negotiations on the outside (when he gets day-leave for good behavior), and becoming the eyes and ears for Luciani during his time incarcerated...Malik also has other plans aswell .. Knowing his only a guinea for the French gang he begins making ties with the Arab gangs both inside and outside jail. He also runs a hash business with some inmates on the side. Eventually he wises up to seize Luciani's power and monopolize Arab gangsClose .. but not quite .. Drawn out, slow paced at times until the action kicks. Very quiet not musical at all .. Though all crime scenes look very real7.5/10

Great overall story, no major twists but still not predictable, well done. I'll focus on the bad things though: Soundtrack/score - I don't remember any of it (I just watched this film an hour ago). There aren't that many great dialogues. Talk is mostly business.There's not much to the people in the film other than their prison life and crime. No one, with one exception, seems to have an outside life, a life they want to get back to. People want to get out of prison and go back to crime. Although in real life prison is a criminal factory, making one-time criminals into career criminals, lone criminals into gangsters and so on, even the most hardened criminals have other interests in life, have other lives and think and talk of other things. In that sense, the film's characters are a little underdeveloped.The film is a little long.Malik is also a little one dimensional. He's a cut-throat career criminal who just wants to go up the food chain. Other than brief flashes where he looks at a Playstation 2 in a supermarket, his porn collection, a conjugal visit and the moment where he enjoys the beach, he does not seem to want anything other than rise and become a boss. He shows no interest in having his own girlfriend, his own family, apartment, or any plans with the money he starts making. In that sense, his single-mindedness is one-dimensional.In a way, it is a coming of age film. Some reviewers see this as a story of a man who rediscovers his Arab identity in prison after affiliating himself with Corsicans, but that's not what the story is at all. He's a man who kept to himself and was forced to do work for the Corsicans. He used the Corsicans just as they used him and then caused an internal civil war that left them all dead, all but Cesar. He used the Arabs as well as pawns in his scheme. One of them said "You're just using us" to which he answered "So what? What's wrong if we all benefit?" He admits to using people. His loyalty is to himself as he sees first hand that there is no loyalty in the world of crime - the Corsicans have their own issues of trust, loyalty and betrayal within their own ranks and the bosses are pragmatic and know when to use small fish like Malik and deal with big fish like Brahim Latrache.The whole film is a long game of chess. Malik is forced to think quick and adapt, and so he becomes a pragmatic opportunist that thrives in the underworld.

A Prophet is a French gangster film set in a prison divided largely by Corsicans and Arabs in a fight for power. Director Jacques Audiard gives a gritty and authentic look at prison life and that is full of racism and crime. The film does a good job on putting some original touches on a familiar story, making it a solid French film to see.Malik (Tahar Rahim) is a nineteen year old who was just sentenced for six years in prison for presumably attacking cops, which he will be the first to deny. He cannot read and barely can write but can speak both French and Arabic. He comes to prison scared and timid but he does not leave that way.Out of the blue he gets bribed with a cigarette to meet up in the yard with a man named Cesar Luciani (Niels Arestrup). Cesar Leds the Corsican gang and acts as the Don Corleone inside the prison. Because of his Arab ethnicity, people assume he is a practicing Muslim, even though he is not. But that is precisely why he is sought after by Cesar and the Corsicans, a way to infiltrate the other Arabs.This effectively means he is claimed by the Corsicans as part of their society. Without choice, Malik is told that he needs to kill a Muslim inmate and if he does not, he will be killed. Naturally, Malik is reluctant and had a few failed attempts to get out of it but Cesar and his men make it very clear that they run the place.The next few scenes are incredibly intense as he is instructed as to how to kill the Muslim. They show him exactly how to strike him and even give him a razor blade to do it. He must hold the razor secretly in his mouth and wait for the right time to strike the victim directly across his throat. Horrific as those scenes may be, they ended up being the best in the entire film.Over a year later he is still doing hacks for Cesar. It is clear that is has started to transform into a new person. The transformation is easy to see physically; as he gains some weight, his hair is longer and he even grows a mustache. But he also grows as a person; he learns how to read, speaks Corsican and is fearless.After serving three of his six years, Cesar decides it is time for Malik to have a leave day. Which is a day where Malik is able to leave prison from 7am and stay out until 7pm. Cesar is powerful enough to pass the paperwork through the prison with priority and bypass the judge. The leave day is not for leisure however, Cesar has business for Malik to do on the outside for him.What Malik does with his 12 hours of prison leave is not all just for Cesar though. He ends up scoring some drugs and makes plans with Ryad (a friend he met in prison) for selling it. He wisely does not tell Cesar this, as Cesar made it very clear that prison leave should only be for his business only. It is at this point that we truly see Malik creating his own independence and start to slowly drift away from the Corsicans. Cesar sees it too.A Prophet is somewhat of a lengthy film, coming in at 155 minutes. There are parts that definitely drag on a bit, mostly in the middle act. But the beginning sucks you in and there is enough going on to get you through the middle until you come to the excellent conclusion. The film itself seemed is well constructed and carefully executed. Therefore, I was not surprised to find out that Jacques Audiard hired former convicts to his crew in order to get the real prison experience.Audiard's work did not go unnoticed. This film was nominated for an Oscar and an Independent Spirit Award for Best Foreign Film. It won the Grand Prize of the Jury at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival and swept all of the major categories (9 in total) at the Cesar Awards, which is the French equivalent of the Academy Awards.All said and done, A Prophet is a compelling coming of age story of a man that came from the outside world with very little and over time prison taught him how to not only read and write but the politics and economics of gangster life. It is an epic crime saga that provides a great story and amazing acting. Just be ready to devote some time for it, the 2 and a half hour runtime does drag a little bit in the middle.