Now in their early 70s, Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne have spent their filmmaking careers worrying about the fate of those much younger and less fortunate. Starting with the Belgian brothers’ 1996 breakthrough “La Promesse,” about a teenager learning to stand up to his cruel father, their body of work is unmatched in its depiction of young people struggling in the face of poverty or family neglect. Although perhaps not as vaunted now as they were during their stellar run in the late 1990s and early 2000s — when the spare dramas “Rosetta” and “L’Enfant” both won the Palme d’Or at Cannes — the Dardennes’ clear-eyed but compassionate portraits remain unique items to be treasured.

Their latest, “Young Mothers,” isn’t one of their greatest, but at this point, the brothers largely are competing against their own high standards. And they continue to experiment with their well-established narrative approach, here focusing on an ensemble rather than their usual emphasis on a troubled central figure. But as always, these writers-directors present an unvarnished look at life on the margins, following a group of adolescent mothers, some of them single. The Dardennes may be getting older, but their concern for society’s most fragile hasn’t receded with age.

The film centers around a shelter in Liège, the Dardennes’ hometown, as their handheld camera observes five teen moms. The characters may live together, but their situations are far from similar. One of the women, Perla (Lucie Laruelle), had planned on getting an abortion, but because she became convinced that her boyfriend Robin (Gunter Duret) loved her, she decided the keep the child. Now that she’s caring for the infant, however, he’s itching to bolt. Julie (Elsa Houben) wants to beat her drug addiction before she can feel secure in her relationship with her baby and her partner Dylan (Jef Jacobs), who had his own battles with substance abuse. And then there’s the pregnant Jessica (Babette Verbeek), determined to track down the woman who gave her up for adoption, seeking some understanding as to why, to her mind, she was abandoned.

Starting out as documentarians, the Dardenne brothers have long fashioned their social-realist narratives as stripped-down affairs, eschewing music scores and shooting the scenes in long takes with a minimum of fuss. But with “Young Mothers,” the filmmakers pare back the desperate stakes that often pervade their movies. (Sometimes in the past, a nerve-racking chase sequence would sneak its way into the script.) In their place is a more reflective, though no less engaged tone as these characters, and others, seek financial and emotional stability.

The Dardennes are masters of making ordinary lives momentous, not by investing them with inflated significance but, rather, by detailing how wrenching everyday existence feels when you’re fighting to survive, especially when operating outside the law. The women of “Young Mothers” pursue objectives that don’t necessarily lend themselves to high tension. And yet their goals — getting clean, finding a couple to adopt a newborn — are just as fraught.

Perhaps inevitably, this ensemble piece works best in its cumulative impact. With only limited time for each storyline, “Young Mothers” surveys a cross-section of ills haunting these mothers. Some problems are societal — lack of money or positive role models, the easy access to drugs — while others are endemic to the women’s age, at which insecurity and immaturity can be crippling. The protagonists tend to blur a bit, their collective hopes and dreams proving more compelling than any specific thread.

Which is not to say the performances are undistinguished. In her first significant film role, Laruelle sharply conveys Perla’s fragile mental state as she gradually accepts that her boyfriend has ghosted her. Meanwhile, Verbeek essays a familiar Dardennes type — the defiantly unsympathetic character in peril — as Jessica stubbornly forces her way into her mystery mom’s orbit, demanding answers she thinks might give her closure. It’s a grippingly blunt portrayal that Verbeek slyly undercuts by hinting at the vulnerability guiding her dogged quest. (When Jessica finally hears her mother’s explanation, it’s delivered with an offhandedness that’s all the more cutting.)

Despite their clear affection for these women, the Dardenne brothers never sugarcoat their characters’ unenviable circumstance or latch onto phony bromides to alleviate our anxiety. And yet “Young Mothers” contains its share of sweetness and light. Beyond celebrating resilience, the film also pays tribute to the social services Belgium provides for at-risk mothers, offering a safety net and sense of community for people with nowhere else to turn. You come to care about the flawed but painfully real protagonists in a Dardennes film, nervous about what will happen to them after the credits roll. In “Young Mothers,” that concern intensifies because it’s twofold, both for the mothers and for the next generation they’re bringing into this uncertain world.

Night Patrol, 2025.

Directed by Ryan Prows.
Starring Jermaine Fowler, Justin Long, Phil Brooks, Dermot Mulroney, Freddie Gibbs, RJ Cyler, YG, Nicki Micheaux, Flying Lotus, Jon Oswald, Mike Ferguson, Evan Shafran, Zuri Reed, Kim Yarbrough, Nick Gillie, Dennis Boyd, Colin Young, Brionna Maria Lynch, Dartenea Bryant, Reed Shannon, Leonard Thomas, and TML.

SYNOPSIS:

An L.A. cop discovers a local task force is hiding a secret that puts the residents of his childhood neighborhood in danger.

There is a storm brewing between the Zulu gang and LAPD, particularly the titular racist night patrol comprised of officers who conspicuously only come out at night. They feed on the blood of Black people, typically poverty-stricken ones driven into gang culture under the impression that no one will care.

Within the first five minutes of co-writer/director Ryan Prows’ Night Patrol, that unit (which is spearheaded by Phil Brooks’ Deputy, better known by his wrestling name CM Punk, putting that assertive and aggressive showmanship to work even if his limitations as an actor are limited and on display) is killing unarmed Black civilians minding their own business, notably the girlfriend of RJ Cyler’s Wazi, previously seen in a flash forward opening impaled and bloodied in an interrogation room, setting the stage that, yes, all-out war is inevitable.

That’s all well and good with a tantalizing horror concept ripe for sociopolitical commentary, except Ryan Prows and his crowded team of screenwriters (Tim Cairo, Jake Gibson, and Shaye Ogbonna) seemingly have no idea what to do with it or say that hasn’t already been made clear from the first 15 minutes. This is most evident in the three-act chapter structure, which switches perspectives from LAPD officers to night patrol to the project housing that becomes the battle stage, where it becomes confounding who the protagonist is supposed to be.

Justin Long’s Ethan Hawkins seems like an upstanding cop partnered with Xavier (Jermaine Fowler), the brother of Wazi, who had grown tired of the African mysticism their mother, Ayanda (Nicki Micheaux), relentlessly preaches and jumped sides to the police force. However, Ethan isn’t afraid to let out his corrupt, racist side if that’s what he has to do to get in with night patrol and bring them down from the inside.

At times, the filmmakers can’t decide how much they want the supernatural and African mysticism aspects to influence the action and the story. Although the visual effects are impressive (containing everything from exploding heads to regenerating bodies), the entire stretch of battling is bogged down by characters rambling about rules and what they are possibly dealing with, while throwing in other pointless thoughts. This is also a film that goes out of its way to make its villains damn near impossible to kill, only for the reveal of how that must be accomplished to come across flat, with the final fight specifically being a severe letdown after some otherwise serviceable violent carnage.

As mentioned, Night Patrol is aimless, sometimes too comfortable switching perspectives, even if it means killing off a main character, simply because the filmmakers have no idea what else to do with them. At one point, a character mentions culture (among other things) being the only way to fight back against these supernatural beings, but it’s yet another aspect that comes across as a thought rather than an explored concept. One of last year’s best films already did that with much more profundity, style, and absorbing entertainment. As for this disjointed and scattered genre exercise, one can get everything out of it from a rudimentary understanding of the premise and concept.

Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★

Robert Kojder

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=embed/playlist

Emmy-nominated comedian Joel Kim Booster is “just really happy” nowadays. Why? He’s a married man.

Kim Booster, the star, screenwriter and executive producer of gay rom-com “Fire Island,” has married video game producer Michael Sudsina in a December wedding that he said made for “the best day of my life, no contest.” The 37-year-old “Loot” star unveiled his nuptials on Wednesday, sharing the New York Times’ coverage of the milestone.

“I’ve never felt so certain and so loved,” Kim Booster captioned his first bunch of wedding photos. His “Urgent Care” podcast co-host Mitra Jouhari, and “Fire Island” co-stars and “Las Culturistas” podcast hosts Bowen Yang and Matt Rogers were among the friends who attended the ceremony at the Exploratorium in San Francisco, according to the photos. Comedians Patti Harrison, Cat Cohen, Ron Funches and Emmy-nominated “Loot” co-star Michaela Jaé Rodriguez also showed up for the happy couple.

“More pictures will be coming, in fact I might never stop,” Kim Booster warned his followers. “I’m just really happy.”

Kim Booster’s credits include comedy series “Shrill,” “Search Party” and “Big Mouth,” but he broke out with the 2022 film “Fire Island.” The comedy, touted as a spin on Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice,” follows a group of friends — some who find unexpected romances — on vacation at the popular New York LGBTQ destination. He received two Emmy nominations in 2023 for the film.

Sudsina, 32, is a games producer for “League of Legends” developer Riot Games and has worked on several of the gaming giant’s titles including “Valorant” and its Emmy-winning Netflix series “Arcane.”

The newlyweds tied the knot more than four years after striking up a romance amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The New York Times reported that the spouses sparked a romantic connection in May 2021 while on vacation with friends in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, and officially became boyfriends later that year. Moments from their Mexico vacation reportedly inspired tender scenes in “Fire Island.”

Kim Booster proposed to Sudsina in September 2024 while they were on vacation in Jeju Island, the South Korea island where the actor was born and adopted from, the NYT reported. Sudsina told the outlet, “I feel when I’m with Joel, I’m in a rom-com.”

“I love that we both have already worked through so much and continue to meet new versions of each other and continue to grow together,” he added. “I think he’s going to be an amazing father, an amazing partner, an amazing friend.”