It was strange that this weekend, I started off seeing "I Love You Phillip Morris" with JIm Carrey and Ewan McGregor in the theater and ended it with watching "A Prophet" on Netflix, and felt like I was locked up for the entire time. I really liked both films but felt like one was the Disney version and one was the real-life version.
"I Love You Phillip Morris" was great, not only because of the actors involved, but it was because of the text at the start: "This Really Happened: No really, it did", or something in that vein. Because of that "disclaimer", I was along for the ride, however fantastical and out-there. I believed every second, hoping for even more twists and turns....from the moment that the character Stephen "turns" from being praying family man to swinging homosexual, I wanted to know more. Phillip Morris doesn't even show up until a third of the way through the film, but we don't care, we want more of these two actors on the screen. Excellent film, set in a Texas Prison, completely believable and wholly entertaining.
But that was the Disney side of things....the real prison life was set in A Prophet. We don't even really know why Malik is in prison, but only know that this time he will be tried as an adult. His life has changed and he will have to face the consequences. But it's grittiness is just a part of the cover, as this is real life in a French prison and Malik is one who by, being in the "right place at the right time" deems him suitable for work with Luciano. This film was real, shot like a documentary, it was similar in feel to Gomorrah, which I saw last year and loved, another mafia film but set in Italy.
I loved the characters in this film, the transformation of Malik and the realness of the story and situations presented on film. Beautifully shot and acted, this is one for those "Best of 2010" lists out there. Not to be missed....
And, I was able to experience both of these films about incarceration within my own neighborhood and home in NYC. Lucky me.
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