Film Shapes

This tautly directed police procedural is based on the aftermath of terrorist attacks in Paris in 2015, specifically how the anti-terror squad dealt with the investigation and a potential follow-up bombing. Director (and co-writer with Olivier Demangel and number of 'scenario consultants'), Cedric Jimenez is carving a niche for himself in the 'no nonsense, muscular but cool crime/terror' genre, with films like The Connection , BAC Nord and Under Watch , as well as an adaptation of the Laurent Binet book, HHhH , The Man with the Iron Heart .  As with many films of this ilk, it's full of impassioned phone conversations, whippy camera movements indicating a melee of barking activity, and tension-raising scenes where something goes momentarily wrong, only to be saved at the last minute. The performances are suitably stoic, to the point of near parody (honestly, there's a rizla paper between Jean Dujardin's work here and his great turn in Deerskin ), but on the ...