Drift Away

Netflix offers a platform to two actresses making their feature debuts as writer-directors:

ATLANTICS (B) - At times mesmerizing, this tone poem about would-be migrants hemmed in by the Senegalese capital Dakar descends into horror mysticism in its second half, sacrificing some of the substance it builds up in its documentary-like first half. IMDb offers a concise plot synopsis: "In a popular suburb of Dakar, workers on the construction site of a futuristic tower, without pay for months, decide to leave the country by the ocean for a better future. Among them is Souleiman (Ibrahima Traore), the lover of Ada (Mame Bineta Sane), promised to another."

Ada is adrift herself after Souleiman and the men go off toward Spain, and she is often nagged by her posse of girlfriends, led by the spunky Dior (Nicole Sougou), who envy the opportunity to be the wife of hunky big-shot businessman Omar (Babacar Sylla). Mati Diop (co-writing with Olivier Demangel) gorgeously captures a mood of restlessness and longing, not unlike Bruce Thierry Cheung's Salton Sea slog "Don't Come Back From the Moon." But she is a little too taken with lingering shots of the moon and the tides, overdoing the gaze into the forbidding sea. But her intimate camerawork can be captivating.

The young actress Sane is a beguiling lead, and it is easy to ache along with her as the fate of Souleiman turns ominous and confounding. There was too much juju invoked, which undercut the crisp realism, but the film is arresting to the end.

THE BODY REMEMBERS WHEN THE WORLD BROKE OPEN (C+) - This extreme piece of Mumblecore traffics in real time but at a snail's pace as two indigenous women in Canada are thrown together after a crisis. I literally needed subtitles to interpret the mumblings of Violet Nelson as Rosie, a pregnant young woman who is found barefoot on the streets, bruised from the hand of her boyfriend. Aila (co-writer-director Elle-Maija Tailfeathers), coming from an IUD-implantation appointment at the gynecologist's office, takes Rosie home and vows to find her safe shelter.

Over the next 100 minutes, we will tail along with these two on this brief but tedious odyssey. Tailfeathers (collaborating with Kathleen Hepburn) creates a sense of urgency with a hand-held camera but undercuts that technique with inert stretches of dialogue that you wish she had edited down to create better drama. She is going for a specific hypnotic effect -- getting the viewer to suddenly realize that the roles of the women (white-collar Aila vs. working-class Rosie) may be slowly evolving (who, exactly, needs to be rescued here?). But the filmmakers seem trapped in a conceit that doesn't do their script any favors. Too often, despite the commitment of the leads and the powerful drama at its heart, this comes off like a stage rehearsal rather than a finished movie.

BONUS TRACKS
The mesmerizing song over the closing credits of "Atlantics," Lizzy Mercier Descloux with "Nino con un Tercer Ojo":



Our title track, from Dobie Gray. Ah, those sartorial Seventies: