Anthracite Review: The French Netflix Miniseries That Keeps You Glued To The Screen
Anthracite Review: The French Netflix Miniseries That Keeps You Glued To The Screen
Cast: Clément Penohat, Noémie Schmidt, Camille Lou, Nicolas Godart, Raphaël Ferret, Jean-Marc Barr, Stefano Cassetti, Kad Merad and Vincent Rottiers
Created By: Julius Berg
Streaming Platform: Netflix
Filmyhype.com Ratings: 3.5/5 (three and a half stars)
Anthracite, a French miniseries on Netflix from April 10, begins with an intervention by special forces hunting the guru of the sect known as the Écrins sect in 1994. capable of mixing those ingredients that tend to attract subscribers of the platform who love the genre: bloody murders, a mystery to be solved that has its roots in the past of a small mountain village, where everyone knows each other, and a charismatic and intelligent protagonist. As we will see in this review of Anthracite, the Julius Berg-directed series makes the most of these elements only in part, some pacing problems undermine its narrative development, and the story is not always as engaging as it could be.
Anthracite Review: The Story Plot
A 17-year-old girl was killed horribly: stoned and with her face covered in Anthracite. A cult with a guru – Cale Johansson (Stefano Cassetti) – who ends up being the only survivor of what appears to be a mass suicide. The Sandman, review: story and adaptation do not match The Sandman, review: story and adaptation do not match Pharaoh: A New Era, review Pharaoh: A New Era, review Anthracite, a French miniseries on Netflix from April 10, begins with an intervention by special forces hunting the guru of the sect known as the Écrins sect in 1994. The plot of Anthracite Gallery Thirty years later, in 2024, in the same village in the French Alps where all this happened, the daughter of a journalist – a passionate investigator in an online community and a girl with an unconventional personality and methods – searches for her missing father.
According to the girl, Ida (Noémi Schmidt), her father has been kidnapped and only a boy named Jaro Gatsi (Hatik, musician and screenwriter of his own videos) can help him. But Jaro seems to know nothing, while a girl he talked to disappears. She will be found dead, with her face covered in Anthracite, sparking panic among those who remember the events of the past that were laboriously left behind her and attracting the attention of Giovanna Deluca (Camille Lou), a police lieutenant. To get answers, Ida drags Jaro to visit Caleb Johansson, who has been locked up in a mental institution for 30 years. There are some unsuspected ties between the former guru and the boy…
Anthracite Review and Analysis
As we anticipated at the beginning, Anthracite (a title that refers to the substances that dirtied the faces of the girls found dead) is a series that mixes interesting ingredients and starts from the right premises but never finds the right tone and rhythm to truly the spectator. The character of Ida, in particular, sometimes appears exaggeratedly caricatured in her attitudes, as if in certain moments she even acted as a comic sidekick (an element which, however, does not fit well with the general atmosphere of the series). Furthermore, in our opinion, the story brings together too many different storylines: there is the sect and its past, Jero’s mother who turns out to have been one of its members, the man’s criminal enemies who come looking for him, the large pharmaceutical company/laboratory that carries out strange experiments and is somehow linked to everything that is happening, Ida’s illness and the fate of her father, who has been investigating what happened in Leviona for thirty years.
In short, there are a lot of irons in the fire, perhaps too many, to build a plot that is not inevitably confusing at times and to become attached to the characters as we should, also to feel more involved in what happens to them. The heart of the story is captivating in its way, but the narrative proceeds on tracks that are too confusing to be truly interesting and engaging. If the construction of the characters also leaves something to be desired (there are too many of them and they are all presented to us at the same time) it is difficult for the viewer to be truly captured by what is happening on the screen. The emotional center of the story should be Ida, the search for her father and the relationship she establishes with Jero, but she too turns out to be a little too sketchy (and at times a little caricatured, as we were saying) that she doesn’t find the right connection with the spectator.
However, the plot is interesting enough to push the viewer to end the viewing, just to discover what the key to the mystery on which the whole story is developed is. What we suspect, however, is that Anthracite will not leave its mark on the vastness of the Netflix catalog, already very rich in much more successful thriller genre products. I wanted to point out that Hatik is known on the music scene because it’s obvious to anyone that he doesn’t do very well with acting. He exaggerates, and gesticulates in an exasperated way, is not very credible, and on some occasions, he is even unintentionally ridiculous. Luckily, it’s not just him: the rest of the cast fares much better, and the breathtaking snowy landscapes that form the backdrop to Anthracite‘s story give this dark tale full of twists and turns excellent reasons to stay glued to the screen and find out what will happen.
In a story that moves between present and past, continuous misdirections and completely unexpected events force us to take into consideration the various hypotheses on the crimes of today and yesterday. The community of Lévionna lives from tourism and skiing, but the old mine which closed decades earlier offered the inhabitants attractive alternatives. The same cannot be said of the Arcacia laboratory, disliked by the population and considered responsible for seriously harming public health. The environmental issue appears in a story led by a brilliant protagonist, whose behavior is often unpredictable due to the secret that Ida hides and which only we spectators are aware of from the beginning. One of the strengths of the series, full of mystery and bloody events, is the bond that is created between Ida, a passionate investigator, and Giovanna, the official investigator, who like Ida finds herself having to fight against a wall of silence and people’s ignorance.
The dark atmosphere is often tempered by Ida’s jokes, who can’t wait to become part of a great adventure, but above all to find her father safe and sound. The narrative pace is fast and there are many unexpected dangerous situations, for all the characters. There is no shortage of slightly strange phenomena, which however all find a rational explanation: here, the supernatural has nothing to do with it but is brought into play to increase the tension. And it works. Furthermore, there are many funny quotes (the most absurd and hilarious is the one from Nightmare, but I don’t want to ruin it for you). The only fear, while watching, is the uncertainty that Anthracite will be able to maintain its high level of quality until the end. The conclusion, as expected, is a bit forced, but there are some really interesting discoveries and a final twist that doesn’t disappoint. So yes: all in all, the miniseries maintains a high level from start to finish.
Because just when you wait for everything to be over and for things to go well, surprises arrive. There is a question that remains unanswered regarding one of the main characters. We believe we will discover the truth, and we await the revelation. Which arrives punctually, leaving nothing unresolved. Except for what seems like – and hopefully really is – a nice open door for a sequel. Too bad only for the choice of the protagonist, clearly a fish out of water among a group of capable actors. With another performer, a real actor instead of a musician, we would have had a truly amazing result.
However, we will see how long it manages to remain there, since compared to other similar operations belonging and not belonging to the Stars Stripes broadcaster’s catalog, including the most convincing and successful The Forest and Black Spot, it presents various structural problems and fragilities that highlight its critical issues and weaknesses. As often happens in this type of show, there is almost always a small corner of paradise cut out among breathtaking views as a backdrop. The idea of transforming these dream locations, where peace and tranquility should be the order of the day, into hells on Earth, is a rather common modus operandi in those projects that base their stories on the codes and stylistic features of the cold houses and true crime. The nod to the literature, series, and films of our Scandinavian colleagues, who are known to be masters in handling the aforementioned raw material, is quite evident in this sense.
Unfortunately, to sew all the pieces together, the authors of Anthracite drew heavily from the available repertoire and then assembled them in a confusing and forced way, putting too much iron on the fire to weaken the cliffhangers and plot twists, some of which were predictable. and frankly not very credible. Yet behind the writing, there was a rather tested group, which in the past also had the opportunity to deal, certainly, with more conviction, with the mix of genres called into question. The mind goes back to Profiling and Vise le coeur. History teaches us that experience is not always enough and this is demonstrated by this new long-distance effort, to which unfortunately not even the contribution behind the camera of an expert director like Julius Berg served to keep everything afloat. The attempt to “dirty” the dramatic and mystery structure with touches of humor, mainly linked to the character of Ida, also, in this case, appears to be a stretch that could easily have been avoided. Here, all things considered, and net of the problems encountered during the viewing.
From France, a thriller-detective miniseries based on mysterious disappearances, disturbing sects, heinous crimes, and shocking buried truths, born from the writing team led by Fanny Robert and directed with a steady hand by the director of The Owners, Julius Berg. Despite them and us, however, the show, even if supported by a dense plot full of interesting touring points, is unable to withstand the weight of the long distance, gradually losing effectiveness, concreteness, and above all credibility. Writing ends up folding in on itself due to the inability of those responsible to keep all the pieces of the mosaic together. All of this flows into a script with obvious structural problems, the result of frankly questionable choices (see the use of humor), which also hurt the performances of the performers and the packaging.
Anthracite Review: The Last Words
The mountain turns red in Anthracite, a French thriller series that tells a rather interesting mystery. It’s a shame that the pace and the tones not always being coherent, and the characters are poorly explored. Full of twists, unexpected dangers, and narrative twists that push the story in a completely new direction, this dark and at times bloody series diffuses emotional tension thanks to Ida’s humor, keeping us glued to the screen. Unfortunately, the choice of the male protagonist, played by the musician Hatik, shows a gulf between his character and the rest of the cast, perfectly equal to the situation while his inexperience is at times unintentionally ridiculous. With a suitable interpreter, Anthracite would have been a real bomb. But no one is perfect…
Anthracite Review: The French Netflix Miniseries That Keeps You Glued To The Screen - Filmyhype
Director: Julius Berg
Date Created: 2024-04-10 14:08
3.5
Pros
- The mystery that kicks off the plot is interesting at the right point
Cons
- The characters aren't fleshed out enough
- Too many confusing subplots
- Rhythm and tone aren't always right
