Street Flow 2 Review: Banlieusards 2 is a French social drama film that released on Netflix on September 27, 2023, and it stars Kery James, Jammeh Diangana, Bakary Diombera, Kani Diarra, Mahamadou Coulibaly and others. It has been written by Kery James, who also directed the movie alongwith Leila Sy.
Now streaming on the OTT platform, the sequel to the 2019 film is available with English subtitles and dubbed audio for international audiences. It has a runtime of 98 minutes, and it revolves around the Traore brothers who’re still very much at the centre of a bigger fight for a brighter future in a seedy Paris suburb with rampant violence, discrimination, betrayal and revenge.
Street Flow 2 Review Contains No Spoilers
Street Flow 2 Review: Discussion
The French movie series is just as much about it characters struggling to fit in as it’s about paving the way for a conversation around brutality, discrimination and the persecution that follows against the minorities living in the Paris suburbs. Introducing us to three brothers, the movie allows for the representation of pains being endured by three different generations. Despite the major differences in the sibling trio’s personalities, they still seem to be stuck in the prison of their socio-political situation’s design in a contemporary society.
However, all these words appear to be too big when it actually comes down to the movie executing this vision. Street Flow 2 has its heart in the right place, but it fails to stick the landing in terms of delivering a poignant message. It shows the three brothers still being caught up in the same vicious cycle of bloodshed and being cursed at by certain members of their society, but instead of simply sitting down with its subjects to also dive in emotionally, the movie resorts to the visual loudness of action instead.
While in some ways it links up with the image of Demba averting the talks about consulting a “shrink” with his brother, unfortunately, the movie ends up presenting a shallow ground to discuss its subject matter. At times, the characters even end up taking the shape of stereotypical caricatures who’re stuck with a single mindset, and so, the lacking character growth over the period of 90 minutes hits hard as yet another setback.
Without giving us a reason as to why we should be rooting for these characters, the film just settles in with the chain of noisy actions to portray the mayhem outside, but it doesn’t do much to convey the mind-splitting conflict within. This is also where the filmmakers miss the opportunity to establish their characters as feeling four-dimensional beings.
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In Demba’s case, his falling apart mental health’s depiction goes overboard and ultimately captures an unfeeling image that never quite connects with what he’s truly going through. The depths and layers of his mental conflict are never profoundly dug into and so the one thing that could’ve carried the story ahead, again ends up restricting the treatment of these significant issues at hand to the mere surface.
And then suddenly, almost out of nowhere, the movie switches its tone and colours and starts owning up to the mood of beneficence. It goes on to show that it’s trying its all to present itself as an ostensible mouthpiece for the problems its characters are dealing with in an attempt to extend its picture of universality to other people’s experiences from the same community.
But the hollow attempts to pull this humanistic outlook only end up drowning further. Street Flow 2 tries to say a lot, but most of it just turns up at closed doors unannounced without actually trying to truly understand the leading trio’s psyche. And for the same reason, throughout its entirety, the movie seems to be confused about what it wants to voice out. There’s a lot to be dealt with, and so the platter is brimming with ideas, but the same disorderly portrayal of it merely further results in confusing the viewer.
Street Flow 2 Netflix Movie: Final Thoughts
While there’s no doubt that the film tries its best to capture the violent purview of reality faced by the Traore brothers, it fails to pace with a personal and emotional connection with any of their characters. The lacking sense of a heartfelt brotherhood between the trio is also deeply missed while watching the film. Their tormenting past comes up in flashes, but the storytelling technique isn’t necessarily able to convince us of why it held such gravity in the lives of these people.
If you liked the first film, you should tune in for the second one to see how things wrap up in the sequel, but as far as representation is concerned, it mostly opts to take the loud path instead of the one defined by pithy gravitas.
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