Romain Gavras’ “Athena” has been available to stream on Netflix since September. It premiered in Venice competition that same month.
I recently spotted a French poster of Gavras’ film with a David Fincher rave quoted smack-dab on it. I was intrigued. Where did this come from. A producer of “Athena” was gracious enough to send me a blurb that Fincher wrote for the film’s marketing team after he caught the film on Netflix:
“Sprawling and propulsive. Romain's gifts for staging and excavation of character are on remorseless display. He makes mind-numbingly complex coordination seem ordinary, spoiling his audience as we bear witness to this painful story's unspooling. Slack-jawed and agog.”
I wrote my “Athena” reaction on 09.09.22. I didn’t like it. The film is very flashy and obvious. Its opening scene, a no-holds-barred long-take, is magnificent, but it can’t sustain the momentum built up in those first 20 minutes. Gavras wants to operate on maximum intensity, and yet he forgets that you also need character development to keep the viewer invested. There’s virtuosity-galore in “Athena”, but little else. You’re left entertained and exhausted at the same time.
I know that, despite decent reviews, Gavras’ film has some hardcore fans who absolutely swear by it. Vulture’s Bilge Ebiri is one of them — he proclaimed “Athena” to be “one of the greatest films I’ve ever seen.”
Who else here has seen it?