Brown is full of electricity here, he's absolutely effervescent, channeling both the true believer and equally the absolute huckster. He builds the character with complexity and energy but ultimately the script's interrogation of the character doesn't meet his portrayal. Hall in the less flashy roll is equally magnetic, with all this conflict, struggle, rage, and sorrow bubbling always below the service, clamped down by the mask of appearances, she's heartbreaking. And there is a fair amount of levity, which Brown and Hall can execute effortlessly, but the film careens from idea to idea, tone to tone in such a way that it feels more like a patch work than a cohesive whole.
Visually crisp if conceptually flawed. The mocumentary angle is used occasionally and not throughout and with very little explanation or transition. Scenes go from interview, to camera-crew observing scenes, to "normal" movie scenes without any rhyme or reason and without enough clarity for the audience to know at any given point which it is. Tonally it's confused too, with broad comedy mixed into some incredibly serious themes which are never particularly clear or delved into.
The film has a lot of ideas, a lot of ambition, and it shows incredible promise for first time writer/director Adamma Ebo but there is simply too much going on here.
Some great scenes and a great cast fail to coalesce into a great film.
Currently in theaters and streaming on Peacock.
Rent It.
No comments:
Post a Comment