Freestyle (2023) - Movie Review

Not a lot of Hip-Hop cinema came out this year, at least from what I could find. There was that House Party remake (made by the same guy who thought casting Jack Harlow in White Men Can't Jump was in any way appealing, and this same damn year at that), but otherwise… yeah, I had to look to Poland to find what I needed. And I specify “needed” because, as I consider Hip-Hop part of my personal cultural make-up, and 2023 marked the 50^th anniversary of that culture, it wouldn’t be right if I didn’t give it some shine before the year ended. Well, that and starring the lead from The Hater, one of my faves from 2020, helps too.

The Hater (2020) - Movie Review

Having already managed a stellar feature recently with Corpus Christi, director Jan Komasa and writer Mateusz Pacewicz have another one that has made it to Aussie screens in 2020. Only this one deals with subject matter that is even more confronting than notions of religious belief: The Internet. Specifically, its use as a mass misinformation tool and how online hatred can (and often does) spill over into the other side of the screen. And to be perfectly honest, this feature is so fucking great, it makes the admittedly-impressive Corpus Christi look like these guys were just warming up.

Corpus Christi (2020) - Movie Review

Here’s a pretty extreme version of ‘fake it ‘til you make it’: Polish delinquent Daniel (Bartosz Bielenia) wants to become a priest, but his criminal history prevents him from doing so. However, when he arrives into a town neighbouring a sawmill he’s supposed to be working at, he starts telling everyone he’s a priest… and they believe him. To the point where, when their own vicar falls ill, Daniel fills in for him and leads the town in their pursuit of faith.

It’s the kind of premise, one that puts deceit and religion directly next to each other, that reads like predominantly atheist cinema on the surface; like a miscalculated team-up of Ricky Gervais and Bill Zebub. However, where director Jan Komasa and writer Mateusz Pacewicz differ (to a gargantuan extent) is that in their exploration of a man who bluffed his way into the Church, they unearth a tremendous amount of queries around ideas of faith, forgiveness, sin, and righteousness.