Over the previous few years, motion followers have been handled to a run of strong French programming on Netflix. Athena was probably the greatest films of 2022, Julien Leclercq’s Sentinelle is a strong darkish Olga Kurylenko thriller, Ganglands (and the film it was based mostly on, Braquers) are wonderful crime fare, and Misplaced Bullet and its sequel outdo even the Quick and Livid franchise relating to explosive vehicular motion.
The most recent entry on this burgeoning scene is AKA, a brand new Netflix pickup that stars Alban Lenoir as Adam Franco, a extremely expert special-ops agent confronted with certainly one of his most harmful assignments but. Franco is implanted undercover on the safety crew of a infamous crime lord (notorious soccer legend Eric Cantona, a troublesome man as soon as suspended from the game for kicking a fan). Franco makes a giant impression after rapidly rendering the pinnacle of safety unconscious after a verbal spat, and he turns into the bodyguard for the crime lord’s bullied son, educating the kid struggle and defend himself.
![Alban Lenoir kneels down to a child’s eye level as they practice on a child’s boxing dummy in AKA.](https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/V3StxTudGs-Tx6PFnxzfY1ZL30g=/0x0:6720x4480/1200x0/filters:focal(0x0:6720x4480):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24628003/9Q7A7404_1__2_.jpg)
Picture: Nicolas Auproux/Netflix
It’s just about “Man on Hearth lite” — one other film that appears impressed by Philip Nicholson’s 1980 novel Man on Hearth. AKA isn’t an official adaptation of the e book, like Élie Chouraqui’s 1987 French film model or Tony Scott’s stylized 2004 thriller. But it surely has rather a lot in widespread with them: It’s a darkish crime story a few grizzled operative bonding with a baby, and the lengths that operative will go when the kid is in peril. Whereas it lacks Scott’s directorial aptitude, AKA has one thing few different films have: Alban Lenoir.
Lenoir began his profession as a stunt performer, engaged on a wide range of French productions and on Pierre Morel’s 2008 game-changer Taken. After a sequence of small components, he received his large break in 2015’s French Blood, which screened at TIFF and noticed Lenoir nominated for a Lumières Award for Most Promising New Actor.
Just a few years after that got here Misplaced Bullet, a tightly contained vehicular thriller the place Lenoir performs Lino, a grasp mechanic and thief pulled right into a scheme by crooked cops and framed for homicide. As a way to show his innocence, he has to seek out the final remaining piece of proof from the crime — a single misplaced bullet.
![Alban Lenoir makes a fist with his hand on an open car door in Lost Bullet 2](https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/e23VelFkWE_7ext-3kaS7W3coJE=/0x0:4356x2904/1200x0/filters:focal(0x0:4356x2904):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23969068/LB2_20211022_Unit_00981__1_CROPPED.jpg)
Misplaced Bullet and Misplaced Bullet 2 are among the many finest motion films of the last decade, utilizing easy narratives to assemble elaborate, kinetic set items. The fistfights are brutal, the automobile chases are electrical (typically actually), and it’s a turbo-charged motion sequence paying homage to the early Quick and Livid films.
However Lenoir is the key sauce to those film’s recipes. He all the time brings a peaceful, intense, grounded vitality to his roles, with a face that screams, “This man has been in quite a lot of fights.” Lenoir strikes like an athlete and hits like a truck, and whereas he performs extremely succesful characters expert in violence, he imbues them with an Everyman vitality. His characters get hit a lot, and are continuously exhausted by the grueling fights they wind up in. In AKA, there’s a humorous scene the place Adam merely desires to take a nap, however retains getting interrupted by notifications and directions from his handler (who he communicates with by means of PlayStation voice chat, players).
![Alban Lenoir walks through a long hallway while holding an assault rifle in AKA.](https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/EhhL7CFjmcApN_iuKkxPnAge2VE=/0x0:6720x4480/1200x0/filters:focal(0x0:6720x4480):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24628007/9Q7A6611_1__1_.jpg)
Picture: Nicolas Auproux/Netflix
![Alban Lenoir pushes a man down into a table filled with chemistry equipment in AKA.](https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/vsYFcLzvVgxyYPX2xPQKqFB5U9s=/0x0:8192x5464/1200x0/filters:focal(0x0:8192x5464):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24627999/3U3A6018_1.jpg)
Picture: Netflix
Lenoir can also be a author, and he co-wrote the screenplays for each Misplaced Bullet films and AKA. AKA sees him reuniting with director and co-writer Morgan S. Dalibert, the cinematographer on the Misplaced Bullet films. (The 2 additionally beforehand labored collectively on 2005’s New World, Dalibert’s directorial debut.) A few of the motion scenes stand out in AKA, notably a fancy brawl in a drug den and a struggle exterior a membership proven by means of CCTV. Dalibert additionally repeatedly frames motion behind lengthy, slender pictures, including depth to a number of the sequences, and he takes enjoyment of telegraphing objects that shall be utilized in a struggle — lingering on a hook on a wall to get viewers enthusiastic about how will probably be brutally deployed.
AKA’s overarching narrative by no means actually gels — there’s an enormous conspiracy principle floating across the edges of the film, but it surely isn’t given sufficient time to actually come into focus. The film’s tempo additionally slows because it stops to present some characters extra particular backstories, which is a disgrace, as a result of the actors have been already filling in quite a lot of these gaps by means of their performances. Fortunately, Lenoir’s distinctive presence helps elevate the film to strong streaming fare.
AKA is at its finest when it showcases Alban Lenoir, Motion Star, fairly than its personal standing as a much less trendy Man on Hearth. It’s nonetheless price watching for those who’re within the new wave of French motion cinema, and certainly one of its most intriguing stars. However for those who haven’t seen the Misplaced Bullet films but, undoubtedly prioritize these for wonderful Lenoir motion.
AKA is streaming on Netflix now.