Bastards is Claire Denis's first crime thriller, but it has no police officers making inquiries or detectives following clues, nor is there a hero on a mission to reveal the truth and bring criminals to justice. Bastards is not Denis's best film (that honor is still held by Beau Travail), but it adds another part to her universe, which exists between two points: France's former African colonies and the financial and political center of French postcolonial domination, Paris. In Bastards, we watch a recession-hit Paris collapse into madness, prostitution, and urban violence. (CHARLES MUDEDE)