{"id":582782,"date":"2026-05-14T02:12:14","date_gmt":"2026-05-14T02:12:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/582782\/"},"modified":"2026-05-14T02:12:14","modified_gmt":"2026-05-14T02:12:14","slug":"butterfly-jam-review-barry-keoghan-riley-keough-in-immigrant-drama","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/582782\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Butterfly Jam’ Review: Barry Keoghan, Riley Keough in Immigrant Drama"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tKantemir Balagov showed talent in his 2017 debut,\u00a0Closeness<\/a>, about a kidnapping in a North Caucasus town, then delivered fully on that promise with his stunning second feature,\u00a0Beanpole<\/a>, about two traumatized women in post-WWII Leningrad. Both those films centered on women whose grim worlds were closing in on them \u2014 a tomboyish auto mechanic in\u00a0Closeness; a nurse and the frontline friend who turns on her in\u00a0Beanpole. The Russian director\u2019s first film in English, by contrast, is testosterone-driven, a father-son story in which the constricting codes of masculinity lead to senseless loss.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe milieu of a small swathe of New Jersey with a close-knit Circassian community is drawn in sketchy fashion. Balagov originally intended to make the film in his hometown of Nalchik in the foothills of the Caucasus Mountains. But after publicly condemning Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine, he self-exiled in 2022 to Los Angeles.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tButterfly Jam\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\tThe Bottom Line<\/p>\n

\tAn awkward collision of masculinity and vulnerability, awkwardly told.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\tVenue: Cannes Film Festival (Directors\u2019 Fortnight)
Cast: Barry Keoghan, Tahla Akdogan, Riley Keough, Harry Melling, Jaliyah Richards
Director: Kantemir Balagov
Screenwriters: Marina Stepnova, Kantemir Balagov
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t1 hour 42 minutes\n\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\tThat might partly explain why the characters here, while not lacking in dimension, seem to exist in isolation. The texture that should have been provided by a broader view of the community and by interactions with Americans outside the family\u2019s immediate circle is missing. That said, the actors kept me engaged, and the visuals are intoxicating thanks to gifted DP Jomo Fray, who brought such vitality and bruising intimacy to\u00a0Nickel Boys<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\tAzik (Barry Keoghan<\/a>) immigrated to the U.S. as a youth, along with his older sister Zalya (Riley Keough<\/a>), with whom he runs what his American-born son Temir (Tahla Akdogan) in an angry clash calls a \u201cshithole diner.\u201d Azik serves as the chef, taking great pride in his delens (Circassian potato and cheese pies), which he and others tout as the best in the world. But the business is failing, forcing Azik to consider going after a chef\u2019s position at a high-end restaurant being opened in Newark by an ex-lawyer acquaintance.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn truth, Azik\u2019s hopes and dreams are pinned largely on 16-year-old Temir, nicknamed Pyteh, whom he talks up to his card-game buddies as \u201cmy beautiful son \u2026 future Olympic champion.\u201d Pyteh has shown skill on the high school wrestling team, winning one trophy and next going after the state championship. Shy first flickers of romance spark up between him and Alika (Jaliyah Richards), another wrestler, whose progress is held back by a skin condition that makes her too embarrassed to strip down to practice gear.<\/p>\n

\n\tDespite being at an advanced stage of pregnancy, Zalya works tirelessly to keep the diner in order, shouldering responsibilities in ways for which her brother just seems unequipped. Or too lazy. She chafes at Azik bringing his deadbeat friends in to mess the place up.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tThe worst of them is Marat (Harry Melling<\/a>, playing the direct opposite of his\u00a0Pillion<\/a>\u00a0character), an abrasive, scrappy prankster who reveals himself to be a complete dick from his first moments onscreen. His cockamamie scheme to boost revenues by installing a broken-down cotton candy machine in the diner makes more symbolic sense than a bizarre subplot involving the theft of a pelican whose rare appearance in the area made local news.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe screenplay, co-written by Balagov with Marina Stepnova, fails to give satisfying development to any of these strands and sorely under-uses the movie\u2019s most interesting character, Zalya. Keough is terrific in the role, weary and impatient from having to exceed big-sister responsibilities from an early age. Despite having too little to do, Keough gives the movie\u2019s standout performance, which perhaps speaks to Balagov\u2019s nuanced handling of women characters.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe film struggles to find its focus, coming closest in Temir\u2019s growing recognition of his dad\u2019s shortcomings, particularly the minimal effort he puts into grasping the opportunities that America ostensibly presents. Keoghan\u2019s boyish physicality makes them seem more like brothers at times, notably so in a lovely moment when Azik accidentally triggers a car alarm and the two of them then set off the alarms of every vehicle parked in the street, getting a high off the cacophonous noise. But Temir wants a bigger life than Azik has ever even imagined.
The turning point comes when Temir, in the middle of an argument, calls his dad \u201cweak,\u201d perhaps the worst label you could slap on a man from such a patriarchal family background. Softness and even open expression of feelings between fathers and sons are not part of the male Circassian factory model. That slight brings out Azik\u2019s insecurities.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tIn one of the film\u2019s most quietly powerful moments, he asks Zalya, \u201cAm I weak?\u201d She responds with silence, her face remaining out of the frame, letting us see only one arm with which she\u2019s furiously mopping the floor. When Azik tries to rid himself of the stigma, calling someone else weak as if to offload the physical weight of the insult, a startling act of violence occurs. But the movie\u2019s tragedy ultimately just kind of hangs there. <\/p>\n

\n\tBalagov is indisputably a filmmaker with his own distinctive vision, ideally matched with Evgueni and Sacha Galperine\u2019s glowering score and with Fray\u2019s nimble shooting style, which often takes its cue to get in close from the knotted bodies on the wrestling mats. Story-wise, however,\u00a0Butterfly Jam\u00a0is too diffuse to measure up to the brutally transfixing\u00a0Beanpole.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kantemir Balagov showed talent in his 2017 debut,\u00a0Closeness, about a kidnapping in a North Caucasus town, then delivered…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":582783,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[83061,160823,181380,41891,198913,96,55026,2839,69778,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-582782","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-barry-keoghan","tag-cannes","tag-cannes-2026","tag-cannes-film-festival","tag-cannes-film-festival-reviews","tag-entertainment","tag-harry-melling","tag-movies","tag-riley-keough","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/582782","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=582782"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/582782\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/582783"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=582782"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=582782"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=582782"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}