This movie was under the radar for me but the promotion of "the producers of Get Out" caught my attention because Get Out was a standout for me, not a home run, but a standout. However, this little indie was brought to my attention and I was curious because this movie does not use superhero powers as noticeably or as noisily as the usual blockbuster superhero movies. But, the movie also focus on the combination of character and imagination and with the support of one terrific performance, the whole product works.
Bashir "Bo" Wolfe (Jacob Latimore) is living with his little sister, Tina (Storm Reid), after they have lost their mother. His hobby is performing card tricks on the streets of Los Angeles and also impressing a girl named Holly (Seychelle Gabriel). He levitates a ring in front of her. However, his side job is that Bo is a drug dealer for a gangster named Angelo (Dule Hill). Sometimes, cops are on the lookout and he nearly avoids being incaracerated. Before he goes out on the date, Angelo gives Bo extra money and tells him to go on a mission to find the new supplier on the block.
Bo continues to perform card tricks on the side and invites Holly over for dinner to meet Tina and their neighbor, Georgi (Sasheer Zamata). Tina and Georgi are infatuated with Holly. But, Bo needed to leave with Angelo for business to deal with the new supplier. They "took care of it" but not completely. (They used a cleaver to chop a body part off). However, when Angelo learns that Bo is taking cuts for himself, he demands $45K from Bo by midnight the following Sunday or there will be hell to pay.
What the movie does well is presenting a character that has no choice but to go in a life of crime to go support himself and his little sister. Bo is in dire straits ever since his mother has died but also wants to bring himself a better life. He wants to back out of crime to have a life with his girlfriend and also his little sister. But, the quiet use of magic and superhero abilities is what makes the movie a bit fresh and a bit exciting. You can look at this movie as an origin story in some sort of way but it is about a boy who had a bright past trying to have a brighter future but dials down into an unpredictable path in Los Angeles that is full of crime.
Jacob Latimore is the reason to see this movie. He had a natural debut in a very bad movie, Collateral Beauty, but this is the movie in which he shines. Dule Hill is familiar from other roles and maybe the is the first time in his career, he plays a villain and he is willful to perform at that menacing level. And, there is sort of a sweet romantic chemistry going on between Latimore's and Seychelle Gabriel's character.
Director and writer J.D. Dillard's movie reminded me of three movies: a bit of Dope, a bit of Moonlight and a bit more of Chronicle but without the handheld shaky camera movements. His debut film is paced real well until it gets into the tense third act where it gets a bit too dark and relies too much on the violent portraits of the gangster world where it has to have "a child in peril" element where you could see the demise come a mile away, however, the payoff with Bo and Angelo is quite fresh. There is also a bit of young adult vibe that becomes a bit cringeworthy but it pays off nicely. This is a minor movie with great aspirations of imagination and solid narrative drive and it is a good start for Dillard's directing career.
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