Tsotsi (2005)
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Tsotsi Movie Review
Tsotsi is a 2005 South African crime film directed by Gavin Hood and starring Presley Chweneyagae. It’s a serviceable, but cheesy flick.
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“Now look what you’ve done…
you’ve made an old man piss his pants“
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A South African hoodlum named Tsotsi lives by a code of violence, and he and his gang of thugs prowl the streets of Johannesburg day and night, attacking those who fail to give them what they want. After casually shooting a woman and stealing her car, he discovers her baby in the back seat. Instead of harming the mewling infant, he takes it home and cares for it. The child acts as a catalyst for the hardened thug to regain his humanity.
This is it. The quintessential example of everything that is wrong with the Academy and in particular its category of Best Foreign Language Film. Whereas the Pest Picture contenders are usually biopics/historical pictures, this category features cheesy, inspirational stories for most of the winning movies.
And that’s a big problem as there are so many better movies from so many countries that are worthy of being recognized, but they never do as the Academy is very easily persuaded with grand sentiment. This story of a criminal being softened with the introduction of a baby into his world is not only clichéd, but predictable throughout.
With that being said, Gavin Hood’s direction is very good and Presley Chweneyagae’s performance is excellent in a very introspective, fine role. I liked the almost sole emphasis on this main character while the supporting players are also memorable in their own right.
Tsotsi is thus sweet and harmless, but barely solid and never great by any stretch of imagination. The crime elements are standard and the baby scenes, though cute, are clichéd. Most of these scenes are competently made and overall solid, but far from original or memorable in any way.
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The score is fantastic, though. They employed modern South African music so well into this very memorable soundtrack. The same goes for the strikingly strong cinematography and a terrific utilization of both its setting, and this entire world of crime and the shanties. Technically, the film’s strong, but otherwise lacking.
Tsotsi is very well directed, superbly acted and phenomenally shot and scored with a particularly strong soundtrack. It has its moments and it’s overall solid and harmless. However, this storyline is incredibly predictable, clichéd and cheesy. It’s a highly competently made, but entirely unoriginal flick that certainly did not deserve its Oscar win.
