The defence The Arthouse Gremlin
“Ambition earns the room.”
The film reaches for consequence and scale, accepting the risk of seriousness instead of shrinking from it.
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Close Enemies
Drama · Thriller · 2018
Driss and Manuel both grew up on the same council estate. An estate where the sense of belonging to your patch is much stronger than the sense of belonging to a country, a nation or a culture... Manuel has assimilated this belonging, and he has even benefited from it and built his life on it. Driss, meanwhile, has shunned it. They will both have to face up to the consequences of their decisions – because they will each have a price to pay…
Movie details
Close Enemies
2018 Drama · Thriller 1h 51m
Critical arithmetic
The consensus, allegedly.
Scores change. Arguments endure.
IMDb
6.4 / 10
3.2K votes
Rotten Tomatoes
55 %
Tomatometer
TMDB
5.9 / 10
Community rating
External scores via OMDb · CC BY-NC 4.0. Values normalized for display; availability varies by title.
Driss and Manuel both grew up on the same council estate. An estate where the sense of belonging to your patch is much stronger than the sense of belonging to a country, a nation or a culture... Manuel has assimilated this belonging, and he has even benefited from it and built his life on it. Driss, meanwhile, has shunned it. They will both have to face up to the consequences of their decisions – because they will each have a price to pay…
CriticWise case file
What this film says about your taste.
Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.
The archetype split
Who fights over Close Enemies?
For the defence
The Arthouse Gremlin
“The stranger, the better.”
Read their case For the prosecution
The Popcorn Loyalist
“Big screen, big feelings, no apologies.”
Read their objectionThe split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.
Taste neighbourhood
Nearby on the taste map.
TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.
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The Origin of Evil
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The Night Doctor
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Mikael is doctor on night call. It’s a vocation. Between two patient-visits in slum areas, he cares for those whom no one else wants to see: the drug addicts, the homeless… He rubs shoulders with destitution. His life is in shambles. Especially when it comes to his pharmacist cousin who makes him write false prescriptions for Subutex. Overnight, he decides to get out of drug trafficking and rebuild his life. But there will be a heavy price to pay.
The Lords of Discipline
Drama · 1983
Will arrives for his last year at Military Academy, in the Deep South USA, in the 1960's. A black student, Pearce, has been accepted, for the first time and Will is asked to keep an eye out for the inevitable racism. The racists come in the form of The Ten, a secret group of the elite students. They want Pearce to leave on his own free will, but are prepared to torture him to make it 'his free will'. Will is forced to help Pearce and he is prepared to risk his own career to do so.
A Dry White Season
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Names above the title
The people responsible.
Cast & crew
Directed by
David Oelhoffen
Written by
David Oelhoffen · Jeanne Aptekman
Matthias Schoenaerts
Manuel Marco
Reda Kateb
Driss, captain of the narcotics squad
Adel Bencherif
Imrane Mogalia, aka 'Tonton'
Sofiane Zermani
Fouad
Sabrina Ouazani
Mounia, Imrane's companion
Gwendolyn Gourvenec
Manon, Manuel's ex-companion
Nicolas Giraud
Rémi Rufo
Court is in session
Put Close Enemies on trial.
Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.
The prosecution The Popcorn Loyalist
“Importance has entered the chat.”
The production keeps announcing its significance, as though awards-season posture were proof of insight.