A Prophet (2009)

French prison drama from director Jacques Audiard and starring Tahar Rahim as an Algerian teenager sentenced to six years for beating up a police officer. I shan't reveal any more plot, but you can imagine the horrors of prison and what someone must do to survive. When this came out, critics were creaming their pants. Frankly, I don't see what all the fuss is about. There is not so much a plot as stuff happening, for two hours and forty minutes, kind of like three episodes of "Oz" strung together, in French. Tahar Rahim sheds any trace of actorly behavior and gives a performance of stunning realism and commitment. I reckon critics were enamored with him, he's pretty much the entire film. I could go on and on and on, but that would be too like the film itself.