I was curious about Beckett (2021) and was compelled to finally watch it on Netflix thanks to a recommendation on Letterboxd (shout-out to William Gibson’s Acronym’s Collection) and in honour of composer Riyuichi Sakamoto’s recent passing as he scored the movie with moody ambient textures and a jazzy tumble for chase scenes.
Directed by Italian filmmaker Ferdinando Cito Filomarino, and produced by Luca Guadagnino, Beckett exists as a counterpart to spy chase thrillers like The Bourne Identity movies, and works more in the mode of 1970s thrillers that felt like moody character studies. John David Washington plays Beckett, on holiday in Greece with his girlfriend April (Alicia Vikander), and their relationship is captured in successive scenes indicating his passivity to organising things. When an accident derails their time together into a tragedy, Beckett finds himself shaken and alone. Yet as Beckett retraces his steps, he becomes embroiled in a conspiracy that he never anticipated. Wounded and chased on foot through the mountains by authorities who shoot first rather than ask any questions, Beckett stumbles and runs and keeps stumbling and running, repeatedly asking for help and sanctuary from the people he meets, and ultimately salvation from the US Embassy.
A lot of Netflix Original movies – unless helmed by heavy hitter auteurs, or starring a big movie star – don’t really have a shelf life. They just sit there after the promo chug around release week. Beckett doesn’t feel dated because it’s an international crew shooting on location in Greece, and isn’t saddled with too much colour correction post-production and CGI green-screen backgrounds. Along with cinematographer Sayombhu Mukdeeprom (of Uncle Boonmee and Memoria), the film looks great and always situates John David Washington’s Beckett as a figure in a landscape, particularly in the film’s movement from the hilly countryside to the sprawling city of Athens, the political strife of Greece growing more and more in the background as activists take to the streets in support of a potentially progressive political candidate.
Filmed before Tenet, Washington makes for an empathetic everyman – even though this still is a thriller where he can slip away from those chasing him and even fight back – his exhausted stride is compelling. And the other key difference is that the character is responsible for the tragic event that sets things in motion – whenever he catches his breath and gets a chance to pause, it’s only to feel grief and guilt. Great supporting cast including Vikander and Vicky Krieps as a German activist who helps Beckett, and I dug it when one of the henchmen on Beckett’s trail turned out to be the flatulent journalist from Flux Gourmet (Makis Papadimitriou). Recommended.
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