Dossier 137

Bold, effective, and brilliant in equal measure, Moll’s film is a fine policier in the grandest of traditions, joining a long line of noir-inflected French police dramas unafraid of being more than vehicles for action and retribution.

Much like the case itself, a crime drama performed and crafted with this level of care and social resonance is well worth investigating.

What makes Dossier 137 a fascinating watch is being able to observe a singular character battle all the complexities of morality when it comes to justice, truth, and conflict of interest. Moll doesn’t write Stéphanie with the intent of letting her take the easy way out, which creates some exceptional character study moments.

A procedural is never just about the case, even as the inquiry barrels along. To his credit, Moll ably recognizes as much, making his procedural a fine example of the form.

The director’s ingenuity lies in the telling. Hitting all the beats of the police procedural, Moll, with a simple but effective sleight of hand, turns the genre inside out, and points to a much bigger offscreen enemy: Emmanuel Macron.

Case 137’s no-frills style can leave the film feeling a tad generic, and one wishes that Moll resisted underlining some of his thematic points so strenuously. But there’s a laudable awareness of the racial, class and gender issues at play in this story of a dogged middle-aged woman going into battle against a heavily male police force.

It’s high-minded, valuable work.