I am just back from the first public showing of this movie in the UK at the Cameo Edinburgh. This was billed as having a Q&A session with Chris Morris, usually this means the director is in London and its a satellite link up but no, he was actually here.
My initial thoughts about the film was that its a very funny in a similar vein to Four Lions, its about inept would be terrorists and the authorities on their tail.
The spin with this movie is that the FBI are out to entrap and this time its black Muslims in the vein of the 5% nation or nation of Islam. The main reason this does not feel as impactful is that the terrorist events which informed four lions are somewhat in the past. Four lions felt very immediate as there was a perception these events could happen anytime. With the war on terror on American soil now wound down, The Day Shall Come does not have the same weight.
Its masterfully written and hysterically funny in parts however the premise that the FBI/authorities are as inept and that they only arrest and convict innocents will not go down well in some places. The fact that the terror threat has greatly reduced hints that they must be doing something right?
And that is the main difficulty of the film. The fact that the war of terror strategy has worked not only counters the narrative of the film, the reduced threat means its no longer as current as Four Lions was.
The cast and directing are excellent as is the dialogue and there are many shockingly great twists.
It does feel an odd choice to use the black Muslim movement as a focus for the movie, I will be watching with interest how they respond to it.
As for the Q&A with Chris Morris? There werent many questions from the audience as people seemed a bit intimidated by his intelligence. He did go on to explain his research suggested the FBI were the biggest "recruiter" of terrorists and explained how. I feel he will be doing alot of explaining once this hits the theatres.
Highly recommended although thankfully things have moved on since Four Lions, which is surely a good thing.
