‘Concerned Citizen’ Review: Good Neighbors
metroweekly.comConcerned Citizen (★★★☆☆), a cleverly told story of what it means to be a good neighbor and citizen. One who considers himself both, Ben (Shlomi Bertonov), who lives in neat, orderly, Roomba-assisted comfort with boyfriend Raz (Ariel Wolf), plants that tree in an empty sidewalk plot outside their building.Clearly, he deems his efforts a selfless act intended to beautify his rough-around-the-edges neighborhood, located in the outer limits of Tel Aviv.
The neighborhood, aging and rundown, and, apparently, teeming with crime and homelessness, is “changing,” though, Ben and Raz dutifully tell their friends.Writer-director Haguel shows his cards early: this is a satirical comedy about gentrification, and probably Ben and/or Raz will be the butt of the joke about progressive, middle-class White gays and professionals moving into economically depressed neighborhoods, looking to fix up their new homes and ignore displacing old residents who are mostly people of color. (The fact that this story could be set in D.C.
should not be lost on any Metro Weekly reader.)Still, the movie isn’t too-too obvious in puncturing Ben’s deeply held liberal principles, starting from the moment he plants that tree, like Columbus claiming the New World.
When Ben and Raz announce to friends that they’re planning to have a baby, they don’t seem surprised to be asked incredulously, “Are you going to raise them in this neighborhood?”Of course they will, Ben insists — they want a diverse, multicultural environment for the child.
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