Critical MeMe

Time spent watching films, even crappy ones, is time well-spent.

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Location: Oklahoma City, OK, United States
    Post dates are when I watched, parenthetical dates are the year of US release (aka Oscar eligibility).

8/05/2006

Tsotsi (2005)

Tsotsi is the dispassionate leader of a small band of thugs who take without thought and kill without remorse. In the aftermath of a carjacking, Tsotsi discovers an infant in the back seat and lugs him home. Seems pretty obvious where this is going, right?

Despite the "dur...wonder if the tough guy is gonna go soft on account of the baby" feeling, it's a testament to both the director and the first-time actor playing Tsotsi (Presley Chweneyagae) that there's a believable story there. Make no mistake, Tsotsi is frightening in his inability to empathize and his entitlement, neither of which just go away because he's responsible for a helpless child. His emotional maturation during the course of the film is rough and, sometimes, downright hard to watch. It feels real, though, and hopeful.

A-

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