Night of Kings (2020)

“Night of Kings” (2020) - Unhinged theatrics, high stakes, and a thorough gutting of the vapid nature of authority’s power get played to a remarkable effect that feels bigger than the screen in Philippe Lacôte’s “Kings,” the energy rampant but well-paced in a story that hinges on the nature of story and the pressure to tell a good one with one’s life, especially if the audience has decided that your life depends on the quality of the journey you speak to, on the spot, in front of prison’s-worth of people who won’t hesitate to call out falsity, then do, quite a bit, but are just as quick to act out and dance along if, and only if, the right beats ring true.

Metaphors abound in the subtext, but the imagery, performances, and writing land big wins as well, leaping out of convention as a film set in and about prison life explores and expands the bounds of a space that’s all about confinement, then flies.