A Hijacking (Kapringen – original title)

99min 
Denmark (Danish and English) 
Genre: Thriller 
Writer/director: Tobias Lindholm 
Cast: Pilou Asbæk, Søren Malling, Dar Salim.

Plot

A crew of a Danish cargo ship is hijacked by Somali pirates Indian Ocean.  Mikkel the ships chef, Jan the chief engineer are taken hostage along with the injured captain and the rest of the crew. Their lives all depend on the negotiation team headed by the CEO of the shipping company back in Denmark, but a tense psychological drama is unfolding between the CEO and the pirates.

Review

Tobias Lindholm is one of the writers of Borgen the popular crime series.  This film is equally as tense and is set in realism, documenting the human cost of the hostages who are confined to unsanitary quarters and the huge responsibility the negotiation team is tasked with, with responsibility to both the company and to the family’s of the hostages. 

 

The pirates are not subtitled so it’s impossible to know what they are saying, in one scene Mikkel (Pilou Asbæk) and Jan ((Roland Møller) try to make friends and they think they have till the man turns nasty and threatening.  Scenes like these really rack up the tension the feeling of complete helplessness for the men trapped on board the vessel. Their feelings of desperation are all to understandable.

The CEO (Søren Malling) is having an equally difficult time in his clean and cool boardroom, he offends the pirates negotiator by calling him a pirate making him angry and weakening the CEO position.

The situation might be heading out of control.

4 out of 5 stars.

Gimme the Loot

81 mins
USA
Genre: Crime/Drama 
America 
Writer/director: Adam Leon. 
Cast: Tashiana Washington, Ty Hickson, Zoe Lescaze.

 Plot

 Two graffiti artists discover their latest work has been erased by another crew, so they set out to tag the untaggable, the New York Mets’ home run apple. They know a guy who can get them into the stadium for $500 so, cue a day of hustling and petty thievery the only way they can make their dreams come true.

Review.

This film looks low budget but has great characters and story, set in the dog eat dog world of a New York suburb where stealing and being stolen from is just part of the day to day.

Tashiana Washington plays Sofia a girl who is street smart but vicious when crossed.  It’s fantastic to see a well rounded female character, she’s intelligent and cynical when on the make but shows her sweet side when bargaining with handsome Graffiti pal Kaps (Melvin Mogoli).

In contrast Malcolm (Ty Hickson) is all about bravado and getting laid.  His scenes with bohemian rich girl Ginnie (Zoe Lescaze) illustrate a different slant on the interaction between the haves and have nots in America.  When Malcolm goes to her apartment to sell her drugs, Ginnie seduces him, but they are interrupted and Malcolm has to make a run for it.  When Ginnie calls him again he thinks he is onto a sure thing, but he walks in on a party, and Ginnie treats him like the help.  That’s when he decides to rob her.

There are some great secondary characters in the film from the silent man behind the screen door who gives no reaction as Sofia demands money for the phone she has fenced to Meeko the hapless lock pick who Malcolm enlists to open Ginnie’s front door.

This film is a really good romp and its fun, go and see it.

4 out of 5 stars.