The Nile Hilton Incident [Sub: Eng]

The evocation of that old film noir feeling is hugely effective here: Dad telling his freshly-bribed son "You can't buy dignity," the fantastic slow zoom on a love scene reflected in a two-way mirror, even the beguiling torch singer.

As doomed as Noredin's actions often seem, they're tinged with enough simmering humanity to keep us caring.

It's possible to admire each scene and still see this film, in its entirety, as in need of some serious sharpening.

You can feel the Middle Eastern country's impending wave of frustration, corruption, and paranoia simmering underneath every scene in the film like white noise in the background.

Sadly, the movie ends up playing out like an unmemorable Law & Order episode.

A political thriller based on a true story, but it needs the real life context to give it some energy (usually, it's the other way around).

Salah does noir well and provides his audience with a perfect case study on what it feels like to navigate dysfunction and futility.

A genuinely thrilling neo-noir with added political intrigue.

The Nile Hilton Incident is satisfyingly unsurprising in its surprises.

Seedy and alluring.

"Incident" isn't completely lost, but it's unfulfilling in many ways, kept out of reach for too long, in need of more dramatic definition and hostility to fully realize its incredible potential.

The Nile Hilton Incident is definitely watchable, but it's so mechanically generic that it simply exists as a trivial piece of disposable cinema.