Mediocre Movie Club Movie Reviews

Four Lions

9/3/2016

B+
3.28

A satirical, slapstick look at four incompetent would-be terrorists plotting to wreak havoc across England.

Directed by Chris Morris
Starring Riz Ahmed, Kayvan Novak, and Nigel Lindsay
Initial Review by Bryan Hartman

Anti Surveillance!

My obsession with Drafthouse movies continues with Four Lions. Drafthouse films have a high production quality, but are off the radar enough to rarely be mainstream. Four Lions is a movie about five jihadi terrorists in London and their hijinx. Four Lions is satire to a T. It uses humor to expose contemporary issues.

Comedy is tough to review and even tougher to agree upon, but I think Four Lions has enough humor to entertain most viewers. Its largest obstacles being British-English and how many quick jabs are quite hilarious.

The movie starts out with an incompetant jihadi video in which the viewer is told "I'm going to turn you in to baked beans" by a jihadi with a tiny, fake gun and giant man hands. This is followed by discussion of eating Big Macs compared to proper halal and a bunch of guys eating SIM cards. These terrorists go on to make fun of trench coat loaners in a true show of irony.

Barry played by Nigel Lindsey and Omar played by Riz Ahmed steal the show. Barry's early line "If I don't come to Pakistan, Islam is finished." sums up his hubris. Moments later he drives a car 6 whole feet into a wall to show new recruit Hassan how to be serious.

The comedic scenes are strewn throughout the movie. Omar and Waj head to Pakistan for some Osama Bin Laden related hijinks, the terrorists communicate through Puffin Party (a shoutout to Club Penguin), as the terrorists are ranting against modern society, one shouts out, "fuck mini babybels" to win a place against #BigCheese in MMC member Shane's heart, a crow is sacrificed, the terrorists cram into a shitty car with explosive materials, they run without bouncing to avoid exploding in an instant, and as Barry is loading a bomb with nails he is calling out anti-western things such as gynecologist. The overt subtlety goes on and on.

The sheer volume of quick comedic jabs make Four Lions a hit. What takes Four Lions from comedic hit (B grade) to somewhere in the range of incredible comedy is the ability to mix in shocking realism. When Hassan stands up in the lecture with a bombvest, the viewer doesn't know if it's real or a joke. Faisal exploding the sheep is sad and hilarious. And as the movie wraps up in a falafel shop and other small stores innocent people are murdered, but it's kind of funny in an uncomfortable way. The movie ends with an innoncent Pakistani in what will soon be a torturous situtation reminding the viewer of the West's role in war on "terror" which has consumed entirely too many lives.

Four Lions is a work of art which improves with each viewing and telling of its story. Dare I say this is a modern day Blazing Saddles where the sheriff has been replaced by mocking society's views on Islam. I'm stuck between an A- and A on this one.

11 Comments

Admin

9/3/2016 06:53:35 pm

Reserved for replies to initial review

Bryan

9/4/2016 09:17:12 am

Rubber Dinghy Rapids

Jon

9/4/2016 06:29:27 pm

Reposted from a 2015 Letterboxd review. I'll have more to say this week.

Perhaps the only comedy about radicalized Muslims, Chris Morris's dark Four Lions posits that a person who would become a suicide bomber is not so different from the average person. It also proposes that that person is probably very dumb, and is likely being manipulated. Members of the London terrorist cell that the film follows include the near brain-dead Waj (Kayvan Novak), the aspiring rapper Hassan (Arsher Ali), and the misanthropic Barry (Nigel Lindsay) who enjoys hazing and false displays of masculinity. As the cell leader, Omar (Riz Ahmed) is the most sensible and competent of the group, but that's barely saying anything. He is a man who compares existence to going to an amusement park, but not getting to ride the rides until one dies, despite the presence of a warm family, a comfortable home, and a stable job. Scenes in Omar's home abide by cinematic tropes of the man coming home to his family and being provided with emotional support and the ability to let his hair down, but here, the wife and son both have full knowledge that the goal they are helping Omar towards is his death.

As disconcerting and backwards as the family scenes are, Morris finds strong satire and comedy in the plotting and its execution. A trip to Pakistan is marred by an overeagerness which leads to hilarious disaster. As stupid and potentially deadly as Waj is, he has an innocence to him that makes him endearing. Barry is a gasbag in constant need of deflation, which Omar is able to do repeatedly, insulting him so savagely that he heatedly resorts back to his native Urdu. The cell's tactics range from the impossible, like shaking their heads in cars so street cameras can't see them clearly, to the humiliating, like having to send messages through the children's social media app Puffin Party. The other side is depicted no better, with the cops often as dumb as the cell. Morris takes an everyone-is-useless stance, except the everyone in this case is heavily armed and does violence haphazardly and at a moment's notice. Morris also includes Omar's brother as a counter-example. Where Omar has integrated into society on the surface, the brother is hermetically sealed in devout Muslim life, utilizing such customs as making all the women in his house stay in a small room when he has company. Despite the brother's absurd practices, he is the one who preaches peace, and of course, he is the one that lands on the radar of the authorities.

Four Lions might place its bombers in mascot costumes, but it is struggling to interpret a serious phenomenon. It is one of those comedies that gives the viewer some sugar to help the medicine go down. It doesn't pretend to know why a person would become a suicide bomber, beyond a general sense of vengeance and a specific certainty in the afterlife, but Morris's comedy does acknowledge that desire's basic absurdity, especially in the face of a pretty good life on earth. B

9/5/2016 09:05:18 am

For a B grade, I was expecting more negative points.

Jonathan Kissel

9/6/2016 10:47:30 pm

After rewatching, I'm up to a B+. The script is excellent, but Morris' directing is much worse than I remembered. It's filmed like an episode of the British office, which is to say clumsily with a lot of shaky cam. Conversations between two people or between the group often don't have the people talking on camera, and not for any artistic reason either, like wanting to see the reaction more than the utterance.

9/8/2016 10:50:48 am

Shaky cam usually bothers me, but here I think it gives a certain level of authenticity. Like someone is following around these bumbling fools.

Sean

9/6/2016 02:58:34 pm

Four Lions is a hard movie to review. Did I laugh my ass off at some of the hijinks? Yes. However, I couldn't help but feeling the goal of the movie was just as much manipulation as it was laughter. I don't recall the movie attempting to provide any of the 5's personal reasons for Jihad. Barry was the most clear as a caricature of western fears of Muslim extremists. The other 4 no explanation was offered and therein lies the under the surface manipulation. Omar is the most troubling of the 4 because he has a loving family, a devout but not Jihadi brother, and a job with western friends. Waj was a victim of being friends with Omar, Faisal had no backstory other than being dumb and having a dad who stresses halal, and rapper Hassan was a prankster wannabe? The point being that anyone can become wrapped up in a Jihad as a victim of circumstance/experience/friends. I suppose that is true for any activity whether it be terrorism, cult joining, suicide pacts, or even choosing a sports team to cheer for or what kind of beer to drink.

Like I said, they brought the funny. I will say the mood went down for me when they actually began the marathon attack. I was hoping the buffoonery would ultimately end with Barry getting arrested and Omar and Waj coming to their senses even if that meant we didn't get the incompetent cops funnies.

High grades in performance to Kayvan Novak as the lovable Waj and to Riz Ahmed as Omar. His performance while lacking backstory was sincere throughout. Nigel Lindsay as Barry was a softball role to nail so only honorable mention for not screwing it up. The other 2 guys I didn't care much about.

A- for the funny brought down to a B

9/6/2016 10:57:10 pm

There are plenty of movies about why people become suicide bombers. I just watched one called Horses of God. Between those serious movies and the story of real-life terrorists like the Tsarnaevs or the San Bernadino bombers, I completely buy the limited motivations that are on display. Omar's a true believer, Barry's a power-mad misogynist, and the rest are just dumb or needy, looking for a way to belong and feel manly.

9/8/2016 10:52:05 am

"The point being that anyone can become wrapped up in a Jihad as a victim of circumstance/experience/friends. I suppose that is true for any activity whether it be terrorism, cult joining, suicide pacts, or even choosing a sports team to cheer for or what kind of beer to drink. "

This is why I didn't need justification for jihad.

I LOVED the ending. It wasn't what I expected in the slightest.

10/11/2016 04:15:12 pm

I thought it was pretty solid

Lane

10/13/2016 12:37:08 am

Is there a more difficult subject to make light of than global terror? It’s a subject that is pregnant with unresolved tension and yet…none of us can seem to quite adequately resolve it. A few churches in my neighborhood have held some “Islamic/Christian dialogue” events that mostly went poorly. Mostly, white blooded Protestant/Evangelicals have wanted to steer clear of these conversations recently.

So Bravo! to the makers of “Four Lions” who decided to push this shit right into our faces in the only way we white, Western people could really take it…satire.

Here’s where I applaud “Four Lions” as one of our Best Films for the season: no other film had the balls to call out the perceived racial/class disruption that Islamic persons supposedly pose to our “normal” white life. From the scenes in British college classrooms (brilliant!) to the Afghanistan dessert, the tension betwixt tension of real life in Britain and the actual lives of terrorists was brilliantly satirized.

And yet, I won’t nominate it for one of our best films because If there’s one thing I could ding the film for: I thought the use of the documentary style was unnecessary. It could have been sparsely used for comic effect, but to have the whole thing shot in the style made it feel rough and amateur. There were so many moments of this film that could have prospered in a proper film making process. Alas.

In the end, the satiare of the film was totally necessary while also being detrimental to anyone actually doing anything about issues of class and race in Britain’s suburbs. And hey, that ain’t my problem to solve.

Grade: B+

Four Lions

B+
3.28

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Four Lions

B+​3.28

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B+
3.28