Todd McCarthy, First Rave for Carlos

Todd McCarthy, writing for Indiewire, is the first up with a review of the five hour Carlos. Either he’s a fast writer or he’s seen the movie in advance. The screening here in Cannes just got out. I haven’t heard word one from anyone who went – I didn’t go, unfortunately, but will catch it when it airs on IFC:

I can’t recall ever seeing scenes quite like these in any movie, and they are bracing. One can only assume Assayas and co-screenwriter Dan Franck, working from an original idea by producer Daniel Leconte and with the assistance of historical advisor Stephen Smith, have done scrupulous homework where such matters are concerned, just as they have been clinically honest in documenting Carlos’ vain interest in liposuction and the concurrent testicular malady that enabled his abduction.

Just about everyone who populates this film is, or was, bad news; the young revolutionaries are violent, delusional, childish in their self-absorption, heedless of human life while professing solidarity with “the people” and handy with all the leftist slogans of the time. To be anywhere near Carlos’ ever-shifting inner circle, “comrades” had to be genuinely committed—he chides anyone he finds unserious as only playing games while he, essentially a revolutionary by birth, considered himself at war.

He closes it this way:

Never dull or slack and crammed with so much incident, character and detail you can’t possibly soak it all in as it charges past you, “Carlos” enters deep and dangerous waters as it takes on biography (of a still-living figure), international politics, terrorism, history, religion, sex and much more and handles all the issues with staggering dexterity, intelligence and skill. It’s terrific.

More from McCarthy.