MOVIE OF THE WEEK (10/6/20): BLACK BOX
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| "I swear, all I wanted to do was tour the set of Get Out, not end up in a possible sequel to it!" Nolan Wright (Mamoudou Athie) prepares to undergo another therapy session in a scene from director Emmanuel Osei-Kuffour's psychological thriller BLACK BOX. Credit: © 2020 Amazon Studios. All rights reserved. |
DIRECTOR: Emmanuel Osei-Kuffou
KEY CAST MEMBERS: Mamoudou Athie, Phylicia Rashad, Amanda Christine, Tosin Morohunfola, Charmaine Bingwa and Donald Elise Watkins
WEB SITE: https://www.amazon.com/blackbox
THE BACK STORY: Nolan Wright (Mamoudou Athie) is a bit of a pickle. You see, after suffering through the loss of his wife in an accident, he finds himself suffering from memory issues, often relying on his precocious daughter Ava (Amanda Christine) for assistance. His best friend, Gary (Tosin Morohunfola), a doctor in his own right, shows concern for his condition, offering him reassurance as best he can.
Then Nolan discovers Lillian (Phylicia Rashad), a doctor who has an experimental treatment that might just help him unlock the missing pieces to help him regain his memory.
As Nolan begins the treatment – which requires him to wear a device known as the "black box" – he starts to have visions of unfamiliar settings, people without faces ... And a twisted figure that seems poised to attack him. Lillian tries her best to guide him through the process, but with each session, Nolan uncovers more and more facets of memories he doesn't remember having. And with each memory, the truth that begins to emerge may be more haunting than his conscious – or should that be subconscious – may be able to handle.
But the deeper he goes into the black box, the more he is going to learn just how much the past can come back to haunt you ...
As Nolan begins the treatment – which requires him to wear a device known as the "black box" – he starts to have visions of unfamiliar settings, people without faces ... And a twisted figure that seems poised to attack him. Lillian tries her best to guide him through the process, but with each session, Nolan uncovers more and more facets of memories he doesn't remember having. And with each memory, the truth that begins to emerge may be more haunting than his conscious – or should that be subconscious – may be able to handle.
But the deeper he goes into the black box, the more he is going to learn just how much the past can come back to haunt you ...
THE REVIEW: Ever see a movie that at first seems a bit boring and/or familiar, only to give it time to continue to play out and discover it's much more layered than you imagined? Black Box, one of the two first releases under Amazon's new "Welcome to the Blumhouse" partnership, is such a film. For in focusing on true storytelling, the film evolves from a terribly slow beginning to revealing its layers slowly and making the audience play guessing games among itself to see if it can figure out what truly is happening.
Athie delivers a Andre Iguodala-like showing in Black Box, delivering a sneaky good performance akin to a veteran that proves he can still put up numbers with his savvy and experience. Excelling at being a very confused every man at the beginning of the film, he flexes his acting muscle once the film hits its second and third acts. Carrying a film without doing too much is not exactly the easiest thing to do, but he does in a fashion that works well for the type of character he portrays with a subtle skill that works well.
Speaking of performances, Black Box is worth watching for Amanda Christie alone. Channeling a vibe similar to a young Raven-Symoné on The Cosby Show, she steals just about every scene she's in thanks to a mix of cute-as-a-button presence and actual solid acting ability. What many people may be surprised by is seeing Rashad play a role that – while seemingly the same as many she is known for – showcases a slightly different side of her that reminds people "Oh yeah, she can do more than one thing!"
Athie delivers a Andre Iguodala-like showing in Black Box, delivering a sneaky good performance akin to a veteran that proves he can still put up numbers with his savvy and experience. Excelling at being a very confused every man at the beginning of the film, he flexes his acting muscle once the film hits its second and third acts. Carrying a film without doing too much is not exactly the easiest thing to do, but he does in a fashion that works well for the type of character he portrays with a subtle skill that works well.
Speaking of performances, Black Box is worth watching for Amanda Christie alone. Channeling a vibe similar to a young Raven-Symoné on The Cosby Show, she steals just about every scene she's in thanks to a mix of cute-as-a-button presence and actual solid acting ability. What many people may be surprised by is seeing Rashad play a role that – while seemingly the same as many she is known for – showcases a slightly different side of her that reminds people "Oh yeah, she can do more than one thing!"
The biggest victor, however, may be all black actors as a whole. For with Black Box, we get to see black actors in a genre from which they are rarely given the chance to showcase their skills: The psychological thriller. There is not one moment in the film that is a "Oh, that's the 'black' moment;" instead, we are simply presented a story that takes it various twists and turns without the presence of melanin ever coming into play. In a year that has shown the importance of lives mattering (or rather, the need to convince some that others do), Black Box delivers a tale that is compelling, intelligently done and stands on its own merit – something that may not seem remarkable until you realize movies like Marci X are less than 20 years old.
Hopefully audiences will step outside of the proverbial box black actors have traditional been limited to and give Black Box a go while we all wait for quarantine to one day hopefully end.
OVERALL RATING (OUT OF FOUR POSSIBLE BUCKETS OF POPCORN):
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