Belgica (2016) - Felix Van Groeningen

Felix Van Groeningen's Belgica is a story about family, responsibility, and the allegiances we share for those we love.  Set in Belgium, the story is centered around two brothers in Frank and Jo, each of which was forced to grow up quick due to a childhood full of neglect.  Frank is a charismatic albeit temperamental family man now, who lives with his wife and young son in the countryside.  Jo, the younger of the two brothers, owns a bar called Belgica, where he spends his time managing his small business while partaking in some of the debauchery.  Through Frank's persistence and need for excitement, something that can relieve him of his droll domesticated life, the two brothers become business partners, transforming the once small, hole-in-the-wall style bar into a larger, club-like venue, full of live music and loads of debauchery.  While things are going splendid at first, the brothers begin to realize that a business on this scale was much more complicated than they initially realized, which begins to put strain on their personal relationship and the life of Frank's family in particularly.  Felix Van Groeningen's Belgica is a film that works so well due to its well-developed characterizations, showing an ability to contrast the doubts, fears, jubilation, and desperation of its two lead characters in a way that evokes a more primal definition of what it means to be family.  These characters are very different but they definitely feel like brothers, each of which with their own similarities and differences, shaped by the childhood bond they share due to neglect. Frank is the older brother, a character who has always stood up for his younger brother, Jo, even protecting him from bullies and other lowlife individuals who saw an easy target in Jo's disability, having a dead eye.  Jo, on the other-hand, seems like a character who has always been alone, in one way or another, a character who, at least initially, understands his brother's desperation to have something to work towards outside of his family life. Belgica tracks the two brother's meteoric rise to success with lots of energy and craft, as the filmmakers inject the film with an array of bright lights, loud music, and general debauchery, as the two brothers celebrate.  The cinematography in particularly does an effective job at capturing the energy and excitement of Frank's new-found freedom, using heavy handheld cinematography, tight claustrophobic framing, and often blurred compositions to capture the chaotic jubilation fueled debauchery.  The businesses' ascent and the success the brothers share is certainly entertaining, but Belgica makes its money in how it documents their inevitable fall, slowly revealing small cracks in the facade of both Jo's relationship with his girlfriend and Frank with his family, as the later spirals more and more out of control due to his new-found freedom.  As the Belgica becomes more and more successful, Frank becomes more and more out-of-control, completely neglecting his family as he drinks the night away and fraternizes with other woman.  Jo begins to realize that Frank may destroy everything the two of them of built, and it's this brotherly bond that makes their inevitable business break-up that much harder, with Jo having to remove Frank from the equation for the sake of not only the business, but Frank's overall well-being, and the well-being of his family.  One of the inciting incidents around Frank and Jo's growing animosity revolves around Frank hiring new security for the Belgica, going against the wishes of Jo who always wanted to Belgica to be a place "where everyone is welcome".  This dispute over the security serves as an incident to push the narrative forward sure, but I'd be remissed if I didn't mention that I think this was Felix Van Groeningen's commentary on the current Immigration crises, with the brothers arguing over restrictions about who is and who isn't allowed in their club.  The contrast between Frank's decision-making and that of Jo's is particularly compelling, as the film suggests that Jo, at least on some level, aspires for Frank's domestication, with the revelation that his girlfriend may be pregnant being met with much more exuberance than expected.  Jo is showing signs of a fading interest in the debauchery lifestyle he and his brother have created, at least somewhat seeing the positives of not living a completely independent lifestyle.  It's an exploration of "the grass is always greener on the other side", which each brother seeing their other brother's lifestyle with a longing eye.  With Jo forcing Frank to see the error of his ways, he himself is growing up in a sense, but more importantly he has become the archetype "big brother" now, having to take the role of protector which his brother Frank had done so many times before.

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