FOUR LIONS; hilarious and thought-provoking
Chris Morris debut feature is everything you'd want from the 'BrassEye' satirist...
rating: 4.5
Anyone familiar with Chris Morris television work, which includes the incendiary current affairs spoof BrassEye and the sitcom Nathan Barley(which, co-written with Charlie Brooker, took a pop at vacuous, middle-class trendsetters), will know to expect something special from his debut feature-length film Four Lions. Fans of Morris will not be left disappointed by this hilarious and often thought-provoking look at a group of incompetent would-be British Muslim terrorists. Four Lions stars a cast of little-known British comedy actors including Nigel Lindsay (who we were lucky enough to interview) as the outspoken revert Barry, who believes the group should bomb a mosque to radicalise the moderates, Fonejacker co-creator Kayvan Novakas the supremely dim-witted Waj (whose stand-out moment sees him holding a small, childrens replica rifle during his martyrdom tape) and Adeel Akhtaras the quiet, simpleton Fessal. Arsher Aliportrays Hassan, a vulnerable youth who finds appeal in joining the cause after a chance encounter with Barry. Elsewhere in the film, Julia Davis is (as always) superb in her small supporting role as a confused, down-and-out neighbour Alice, whilst Craig Parkinson is likewise very funny as a work colleague of one of the group, Matt. All of these actors bring a lot of comedy to their roles in terms of the pitch-perfect delivery required of all Morris material (co-written here with Peep Show co-creators and occasional The Thick of It writers Jesse Armstrong and Sam Bain), but the central performance belongs to Riz Ahmed, who plays Omar, the films charismatic and often deeply sympathetic protagonist. Omar has a tender relationship with his wife and son, he rejects the sermonising of his local hard-line Muslim friend and he seems genuinely moved by a political conviction to remove invading forces from the present conflicts in the Middle East (a political sensibility many may find themselves in agreement with in itself). Where the film is pure Morris, is not only that it provides no easy answers or solutions, but that it brings the reality of people like Omar into sharp focus.
Whilst nobody in the audience is encouraged to agree with the measures Omar takes to try and register his political dissatisfaction as a British Muslim, in Four Lions we are given a humanistic picture which demythologises the bogeyman of the evil suicide bomber. This is arguably a laudable aim if, like me, you see empathy and understanding as crucial to finding a future peace. However, it is an angle which has attracted some criticism from a group representing victims of the London bombings of 2007. Ahmed walks a difficult tightrope, but manages to perfectly judge his performance and makes Four Lions a surprisingly emotional film (not something with which, for all its undisputed genius, the work of Chris Morris has hitherto been associated). Where the film differs from the rest of the Morris oeuvre is that his work usually combines incisive satire of both form and content. The way things are said is always as rich and funny as what is being said. However, in Four Lions (as with his BAFTA winning 2002 short My Wrongs 8245-8249 and 117) this formal and generic parody is absent. The cinematography of the in-demand Lol Crawley makes it clear that this is a film and not an extended television pilot, but stylistically there is none of the directorial wit and experimentation seen in Morris series Jam. Not that there is anything wrong with that. It is still an excellent piece of comedy filmmaking. But there is a sizable portion of what makes Morris pioneering and unique that is clearly missing. However, the bizarre and often times unsettling side of his work, with its emphasis on wordplay and esoteric (not to mention highly stylised) humour is clearly on show here. Four Lions will certainly not be to everybodys taste, with some scenes destined to make audiences uneasy, but long term fans of Morris will find it to be a satisfying and devastatingly funny experience. It works as a look at fundamentalism and as a look at the idiocy of men in groups. It also makes some good satirical points at the expense of institutions (namely the police force) and the nature of British political reactions to terrorism in general. Alongside last years Armando Iannucci film, In the Loop, Four Lions marks the remarkable and long overdue transition of these great UK satirists from the television into the cinema. I hope we can look forward to many more films from both Morris and Iannucci in the years to come. 
Four Lionsis out now in the UK and you can read OWFs interview with Nigel Lindsay (AKA Barry) here.