Both Abdul-Mateen and Wahlberg are great, they just don't seem to be in the same movie tonally. Abdul-Mateen grounded, emotional, and real, it's his Just Mercy ie something that is in the ballpark of awards worthy. Wahlberg is big, operettic, violent and funny in his performance, Tarantino-esk. Separately, they're objectively good performances, together they don't really mesh not so much their fault as the script which can't decide if it wants to be grindhouse entertainment or an Oscar contender.
Visually the film is slick, profesh, but mostly takes no risks as far as how it looks. Production is solid, good period costumes, cars, locations. It all works really well especially on a smaller budget. It just fails to come together in it's tone, it asks us to really invest in the emotional and racial reality of the period but also asks us to delight in Wahlberg gleefully tuning up on some gangly klan members while wearing an absurd prosthetic nose and talking in a stereotypical NYC accent. Don't get me wrong, it's incredibly fun, but this is not Django Unchained, there's just no consistency in what it's trying to do, the story it's ultimately trying to tell, and you get whiplash as a result scene-to-scene.
Several compelling scenes fail to coalesce into a cogent feature.
Currently in theaters.
Rent It.
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