Search

Salut Cousin!

1996, Movie, NR, 103 mins

Salut Cousin!: Review

SALUT COUSIN!
starstarstarstar
Light and very slight, French-Algerian director Merzak Allouache's follow-up to 1994's BAB EL OUED CITY is a cheerful but only intermittently engaging look at the lives of Algerian-born Parisians. Alilo (Gad Elmaleh) is in "the bizness" -- that is, the business of traveling to Paris and smuggling out salable goods unavailable in his native Algiers. On this trip, however, he loses the address of his latest pick-up. So he spends five days touring the new, multi-culti Paris with his cousin Mok (Mess Hattou), an aspiring rap singer who's hit upon the novel idea of setting La Fontaine's animal poems to a funky beat. Allouche's film is fluffy stuff even by the standards of the cinema beur ("Arab" cinema), a genre that works to overturn negative stereotypes of North Africans living in France, but has been criticized for downplaying tough issues, such as racism, and for being too mainstream. Skinheads do put in a brief appearance here, but they're quickly dispatched by the residents of Mok's multiethnic and improbably integrated neighborhood. There's some talk of homesickness and sorrow about their embattled homeland, but on the whole, things are really quite comfy for these outsiders. It's all too much like one of La Fontaine's simplistic fables -- the bumpkin country mouse comes to visit his cousin, the sophisticated city mouse -- with a bit of gratuitous sex and karoake tossed to keep things from getting too heavy. leave a comment --Ken Fox
Advertisement

Advertisement

Most Popular TV Shows

  1. Dancing with the Stars
  2. The Game
  3. NCIS
  4. American Idol
  5. Wife Swap
more popular tv shows

Most Popular Celebrities

  1. Michelle Obama
  2. Adam Lambert
  3. Tiger Woods
  4. Kym Johnson
  5. Donny Osmond
more popular celebrities

Most Popular Movies

  1. The Twilight Saga: New Moon
  2. The Blind Side
  3. 2012
  4. Planet 51
  5. A Christmas Carol
more popular movies

Top Videos

  1. Adam Lambert
  2. #5 Adam Lambert - For Your En...
  3. #20 Adam Lambert American Mus...
  4. Dancing with the Stars
  5. V
more top videos