Tori and Lokita
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Synopsis
From two-time Palme d’Or winners Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne comes the story of seventeen-year-old Lokita and twelve-year-old Tori, two immigrants to Belgium—from Cameroon and Benin, respectively—whose siblinglike bond is the only resource they can depend on in their struggle for survival on the margins of European society. The pair work as performers in a cheap trattoria, dealing drugs on the side, while balancing the demands of an indifferent bureaucracy. When Lokita is held captive in a marijuana grow house, events spiral out of control. Winner of the Seventy-Fifth Anniversary Prize at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival, the latest humanist drama from the Dardenne brothers is a heart-stopping thriller that casts an unflinching eye on the trials of the young and dispossessed.
Picture 8/10
Criterion presents Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne's Tori and Lokita through their Janus Contemporaries line, offering the film on a dual-layer disc in its original 1.85:1 aspect ratio.
The film, shot digitally, relies heavily on the quality of its digital encoding, which is generally good. Some minor banding is noticeable at times, along with occasional noise and slight blocking patterns. However, it's difficult to determine whether these issues stem from the original photography or the encoding process (though I'll lean towards a mix of both).
Fortunately, any artifacts present are minimal and easy to overlook. At its best, the image is sharp and clean, featuring a pleasing amount of detail and vibrant color representation. And though gamma levels look a little off in a handful of shots, even the black levels are impressively rich much of the time, with shadow details remaining intact.
Overall, the presentation is perfectly fine.
Audio 8/10
The 5.1 soundtrack, presented in DTS-HD Master Audio, is crisp and clean, offering a decent range between the lows and highs, with a few standout louder moments. Some ambient noise is directed to the rear speakers, but the majority of the audio is concentrated in the front channels.
Extras 3/10
As with most Janus Contemporary releases, special features aren't the main focus and are often repurposed from Criterion Channel-produced content. This is true for Tori and Lokita, where the included features are fairly minimal. Alongside the film’s trailer, there's a discussion with the Dardennes, where they delve into the inspirations behind the story and the social issues surrounding the immigrant experience that they aimed to highlight. It's an engaging conversation, with the directors’ passion for the subject clearly evident. Additionally, Michael Joshua Rowin contributes a brief essay in the included booklet.
Closing
A solid budget release for one of the Dardennes' more recent films.
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