“Black Flies: A Gritty Portrayal of New York’s Paramedics, But Lacking in Nuance”

Black Flies: Welcome to Hell

Six years after coming to Cannes with A prayer before dawnFrench director Jean-Stéphane Sauvaire is back on the Croisette, this time in competition, with his new film Black Fliesadapted from the eponymous novel by Shannon Burke published in 2008.

The pitch:

In New York, Ollie Cross (Tye Sheridan), a young paramedic, teams up with Rutkovsky (Sean Penn), an experienced emergency physician. Faced with extreme violence, he discovers the risks of a job that every day shakes his certainties about life… and death.

In the foggy streets of New York, Jean-Stéphane Sauvaire attempts to capture the very essence of urgency. With syncopated editing and immersive action scenes, the director manages to immerse us in the heart of the ambulance profession, where every second counts. The images jostle, the sirens howl, and the viewer is caught up in a cinematic frenzy that leaves him breathless, where he feels the thrilling urgency with every heartbeat.

A lack of finesse

However, despite this technical prowess, Black Flies suffers from a heavy subtext about human misery. The director seems to want to expose too explicitly the torments and demons that haunt the characters. The often clumsy dialogues hammer home already obvious truths. This over-explanation serves the filmremoving some of the mystery and subtlety that could have made it a more powerful experience.

Moreover, Black Flies suffers from excessive repetition and almost endless miserabilism. The scenes follow one another, look alike, and one sometimes finds oneself trapped in a unhealthy voyeurism. The director seems to linger with a disturbing fascination on the darker aspects of the human condition, thus creating a heavy and sometimes difficult to bear atmosphere. We would have liked a variation in tone and a more nuanced exploration of the themes addressed.

However, amid this dark web, a glimmer of hope emerges. Tye Sheridan, with his intense and lively interpretation, manages to pull out of the game. Despite the not very fine writing of his rookie character overwhelmed by events, he manages to convey to us all the distress and determination of his character. His subtle and poignant acting provides a stark contrast to the film’s less accomplished elements, and reminds us that even in the heart of darkness, there remains a spark of humanity.