Review of Chevalier (2015) by Alfin N — 13 Sep 2016

I saw this at the Cleveland International Film Festival. A female director, Athina Rachel Tsangari, gives her perspective on the machismo and one-upmanship involved when men get together on a sports outing like a fishing trip.

Six Greek men, in this case, only have each other for company. It was difficult to determine exactly the relationship between all the men. Perhaps something was lost in translation. I could be wrong, but I think two of the older men are brothers with a family friend who is like a brother tagging along, then the patriarch has three grown sons.

Dimitris (Papadimitriou) stands out as the awkward, overweight, possibly youngest, goofball of a brother who struggles to compete with the other smarter, more agile, more testosterone fueled men. They compete over every little thing, uncover family dysfunction, and show off their egos.

It becomes one dimensional. It is not an environment that I find at all pleasant, so sitting through almost two hours of it became uncomfortable. I wanted to find some deeper meaning, but there is not much here except to show that the bonds of blood barely hold together when put through such unrelenting competition.