Fantastic Fest 2024: A locksmith is trapped by escalating tensions in Belgian thriller Night Call
This is part of our coverage from Fantastic Fest 2024 in Austin, TX where genre films are debuting before they get wider release. Check out all of our coverage here.
Europe has a grand tradition of ticking-clock thrillers from The 39 Steps to Das Boot to Run Lola Run. The latest entry into that storied subgenre (and heir apparent to the 1998 Tom Tykwer classic in its depiction of an under-explored cityscape) is Michiel Blanchart’s Night Call. Blanchart’s thrilling action noir squeezes every last drop of tension it can out of its story, leaving viewers breathless.
Belgian college student Mady (Jonathan Feltre) works as a locksmith to pay for tuition and spends all his time between jobs studying in his car. One night, right before signing out, he receives an urgent call from a locked-out woman named Claire (Natasha Krief). Mady’s a good kid, and needs the money, so he takes the job.
Claire gives off red flags as soon as Mady arrives (she doesn’t have an ID and seems nervous) but the pair hit it off, so Mady ignores his instincts. Big mistake. Turns out Claire (if that is her name) stole a lot of money belonging to some gangsters (Jonas Bloquet, Thomas Mustin and an intimidating Romain Duris). If Mady wants to survive past the morning, he’ll get that money back. No matter the cost.
Night Call is co-writer and director Blanchart’s first feature, and boasts impressive efficiency and confidence, quickly weaving together worldbuilding and character details that inform what we’re seeing, from the Black Lives Matter protest happening in the background to the sticky notes Mady leaves on a windshield. Blanchart doles out just enough information for the plot to make sense from moment to moment, keeping enough withheld to keep viewers on the edge of their seats.
Mady’s crazy night through the streets of Brussels is captured in exquisite detail thanks to cinematographer Sylvestre Vannoorenberghe’s tight framing and beautiful tracking shots and follow pans. Any enhancing CG is subtle, mostly used to go places a camera can’t, as with a
spellbinding bicycle chase ending in a train station. Save for the most obvious cuts, the camera is continually moving, roving up and down stairwells, through the confines of a nightclub, and ultimately into the busy protest-congested streets.
Night Call feels like the kind of movie that’s sure to be remade for American audiences in a couple of years with diminished results. While it would certainly translate easily across cultural or linguistic divides, it’s worth catching this near-perfect thriller before it gets remixed. The plot is so tight, the action so kinetic, that it’s nearly impossible to take your eyes off the screen.
