‘Malditos' is a brooding, operatic French drama

Boston Globe

3 days ago

Especially her sons. The brash, excitable son, Tony (Darren Muselet), wants to get into the lucrative drug market -- or maybe he wants to run away with his girlfriend, who is from a rival clan. The brooding, bitter son, Jo (Pablo Cobo), who was forced to abandon his career ambitions, has his own vision for leadership, one he honed during years of estrangement from his mother and brother. Sara, Tony and Jo all think they are keeping the same secret, but they aren't quite.
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The show wears its Shakespearean power-jockeying as comfortably as its track jackets. 'You're a real prince,' a vulnerable man stutters at Jo, begging for his life. Every bright idea just illuminates the path toward a more severe catastrophe, and pretty soon, the bodies are piling up. Some are even being exhumed.
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Violence abounds, both in harebrained shoot-em-ups and in the startling volatility of a bull. One person might be leveled by a mob-led beatdown or by the punishing rains of an unrelenting storm. Another might be swallowed up by oppressive gender roles or spit out by expensive real estate regulations.
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A few of the twists and turns here can feel a little predictable, and all that glowering starts losing its impact after a while. But the show has plenty of fresh ideas and true surprises in its specifics and realism, in its characters' rites and traditions. 'Malditos' teases out how religion, superstition and harshly enforced cultural customs are both the fabric and the rend. There's a bright beauty to a tough-guy dad tenderly officiating a poetic marriage ritual, and also a cold horror at the bride's numb concessions and deep despair.
Now streaming on Max.
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