COOL ABDOUL

This is not a gritty sports drama. It’s a film that leaves the heart cold, the eyes drowsy and the mind bored.

Cool Abdoul might be based on the true story of unorthodox Belgian boxer Ismail Abdoul, the movie is as orthodox as they come, as it works its way past every single boxing movie cliché you can think of.

From the main narrative, which sees Abdoul moonlighting as a bouncer at an unsavoury night club, to the trite romantic subplot and the underdog attitude Cool Abdoul indulges in genre tropes to a numbing degree. This would be okay if the main character was easy to root for, but when your very first scene has him menacing a class of children and their teacher with a switchblade, you know you're facing an uphill battle there.

Add in lead Nabil Mallat's severely limited acting chops, an overall lack of dramatic urgency and a handful of severely underwhelming boxing scenes and you and up with a movie that's intent on delivering a gritty sports drama yet ends up as a film that leaves the heart cold, the eyes drowsy and the mind bored.

release: 2022

director: Jonas Baeckeland

starring: Nabil Mallat, Johan Heldenbergh, Anemone Valcke, Dimitri ‘Vegas’ Thivaios