‘Concerned Citizen’ Review: A Gentle Satire on White Guilt and White Privilege

variety.com:

Manuel Betancourt The fine line between being right and being righteous is at the center of Idan Haguel’s “Concerned Citizen.” The Tel Aviv-set film follows a young gay man living in a neighborhood that’s supposedly on the upswing who has to question whether his commitment to bettering this increasingly gentrified community is all that selfless — or whether, in fact, that moniker he uses to describe himself and which gives the film its title is a smokescreen for more unseemly sentiments about his immigrant neighbors.

Haguel’s deft dark comedy is a tight character study of the curdling effects of white guilt and white privilege. Ben and Raz (real life couple Shlomi Bertonov and Ariel Wolf) live in a picturesque apartment.

Their shelves are adorned with masterfully manicured house plants and hip coffee table books on Bowie; their every morning is scored by the sounds of their robot vacuum followed by the hum of their blender as they make each other green juices to kick start their day.

Together they’ve created a safe haven within their doors that staves off the relatively chaotic urban world right outside their door.