Black Flies (Jean-Stéphane Sauvaire)
(Cannes Film Festival)
Black Flies offers a grim portrait of a young New York City paramedic (Tye Sheridan) as he spends long days and nights riding shotgun with a cynical partner (Sean Penn, in surprisingly mediocre form).
Along the way there are blood-gushing wounds, mostly ungrateful patients, racist stereotypes (used with no reason), and ludicrous sex scenes, just to make the take more seductive and commercial?
A message film, it provides all too obvious lessons about what a thankless job it is trying to save others when you can’t even save yourself.
Sauvaire’s filmmaking chops were better applied in previous films, such as Johnny Mad Dog and A Prayer Before Dawn.
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