Sentinel on Prime Video: the great show of Jonathan Cohen and Raphaël Quenard (review)

The directors of Terrible Jungle turn Jonathan Cohen into a cop with a past as a crooner. A comedy as hairy as it is unique.

Very media cop from Reunion, the aptly named François Sentinelle (jonathan cohen) had its heyday fifteen years ago with a saucy hit that Francky Vincent would not have denied, The Kiki. Outdated for a long time, this police officer with muscular methods is desperately trying to find success again, and is preparing his comeback with a new album. Meanwhile, the island is in the throes of a crime spree: a local elite figure has been kidnapped and another murdered. All to his music, Sentinel very weak investigation…

After the crazy Terrible Jungle in 2020, directors Hugo Benamozig and David Caviglioli take the delirium up a notch with a flavorful comedy ZAZ (we often think of Is there a cop to save the queen? And Hot Shots!). But the duo defuses the rant by situating the film in a semi-realistic universe, staged like a real thriller (great shootout scene in an apartment), where only Jonathan Cohen’s character really goes beyond the frame.

Queen in Majesty

Tailored for the role, he takes obvious pleasure in playing this simpleton dressed as in Two cops in Miami, and has full latitude to deploy its unstoppable comic vista. Cohen envisions the character as a kind of more virile Frank Drebin, a toon obsessive over which reality has no hold. Facing him, Raphaël Quenard – and its characteristic phrasing – embodies order and morality (the star of Yannick has the role of the policeman exasperated by the “methods” of his colleague), but seems to arise from the cinema of Bruno Dumont. Boosted by this mixture of genres, the film avoids the trap of being vampirized by Cohen and is built on a singular and euphoric comic tone. Not everything works, far from it (Emmanuelle Bercot’s character, in particular, has great difficulty existing), but Sentinel has the good taste to spin at full speed and never dwell on a failed gag.

Sentinel, watch on Prime Video.

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