Tag: Lakeith Stanfield

Daniel Kaluuya and LaKeith Stanfield In First Trailer For Shaka King’s JUDAS AND THE BLACK MESSIAH

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Here’s your first look at the powerful trailer for JUDAS AND THE BLACK MESSIAH. Starring Daniel Kaluuya and LaKeith Stanfield, the film is scheduled to open in theaters 2021.

WAMG’s Michael Haffner says of this first trailer:

Chairman Fred Hampton was 21 years old when he was assassinated by the FBI, who coerced a petty criminal named William O’Neal to help them silence him and the Black Panther Party. But they could not kill Fred Hampton’s legacy and, 50 years later, his words still echo…louder than ever.

I am a revolutionary!

In 1968, a young, charismatic activist named Fred Hampton became Chairman of the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party, who were fighting for freedom, the power to determine the destiny of the Black community, and an end to police brutality and the slaughter of Black people.

Chairman Fred was inspiring a generation to rise up and not back down to oppression, which put him directly in the line of fire of the government, the FBI and the Chicago Police. But to destroy the revolution, they had to do it from both the outside…and the inside. Facing prison, William O’Neal is offered a deal by the FBI: if he will infiltrate the Black Panthers and provide intel on Hampton, he will walk free. O’Neal takes the deal.

Now a comrade in arms in the Black Panther Party, O’Neal lives in fear that his treachery will be discovered even as he rises in the ranks. But as Hampton’s fiery message draws him in, O’Neal cannot escape the deadly trajectory of his ultimate betrayal.

Though his life was cut short, Fred Hampton’s impact has continued to reverberate. The government saw the Black Panthers as a militant threat to the status quo and sold that lie to a frightened public in a time of growing civil unrest. But the perception of the Panthers was not reality. In inner cities across America, they were providing free breakfasts for children, legal services, medical clinics and research into sickle cell anemia, and political education. And it was Chairman Fred in Chicago, who, recognizing the power of multicultural unity for a common cause, created the Rainbow Coalition—joining forces with other oppressed peoples in the city to fight for equality and political empowerment.

“Judas and the Black Messiah” stars Oscar nominee Daniel Kaluuya (“Get Out,” “Widows,” “Black Panther”) as Fred Hampton and LaKeith Stanfield (“Atlanta,” “The Girl in the Spider’s Web”) as William O’Neal. The film also stars Jesse Plemons (“Vice,” “Game Night,” “The Post”), Dominique Fishback (“The Hate U Give,” “The Deuce”), Ashton Sanders (“The Equalizer 2,” “Moonlight”) and Martin Sheen (“The Departed,” TV’s “The West Wing,” TV’s “Grace & Frankie”).

“Judas and the Black Messiah” is directed by Shaka King, marking his studio feature film directorial debut. The project originated with King and his writing partner, Will Berson, who co-wrote the screenplay, story by Berson & King and Kenny Lucas & Keith Lucas. King, who has a long relationship with filmmaker Ryan Coogler (“Black Panther,” “Creed,” “Fruitvale Station”), pitched the film to Coogler and Charles D. King (“Just Mercy,” “Fences”), who are producing the film. The executive producers are Sev Ohanian, Zinzi Coogler, Kim Roth, Poppy Hanks, Ravi Mehta, Jeff Skoll, Anikah McLaren, Aaron L. Gilbert, Jason Cloth, Ted Gidlow, and Niija Kuykendall.

The ensemble cast also includes Algee Smith (“The Hate U Give,” “Detroit”), Darrell Britt-Gibson (“Just Mercy,” “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri”), Dominique Thorne (“If Beale Street Could Talk”), Amari Cheatom (“Roman J. Israel, Esq.,” “Django Unchained”), Caleb Eberhardt (“The Post”), and Lil Rel Howery (“Get Out”).

The behind-the-scenes creative team includes director of photography Sean Bobbitt (“12 Years a Slave,” “Widows”), production designer Sam Lisenco (“Shades of Blue”), editor Kristan Sprague (“Random Acts of Flyness”) and costume designer Charlese Antoinette Jones (“Raising Dion”)

The film is a Warner Bros. Pictures presentation, in association with MACRO Films, Participant and BRON Creative, and will be distributed worldwide by Warner Bros. Pictures.

THE PHOTOGRAPH – Review

Stella Meghie directs her original story in a manner that attempts to blend arthouse sensibilities with mainstream romance – combining a soul-searching drama about two generations of women confronting and learning from their parents as they try to not just commit themselves to their careers and be open to the possibility of love. One half of the story follows Christina (Chanté Adams), a young photographer in Louisiana growing up in the late 1980s who feels the pull to pursue her career elsewhere. The other half follows a museum curator (Issa Rae) in present-day New York, who meets an up-and-coming journalist (Lakeith Stanfield) through a story that he’s researching. 

Despite the time jump, THE PHOTOGRAPH effortlessly slides between the two timelines, with some scenes slowly merging into one another in interesting ways. It’s this control over the story that shows Stella Meghie’s talent as a director, even if the material occasionally feels hollow or expected. The script (as well as actors Rae and Stanfield) struggles when tackling the modern romance, but it excels when focusing on the brooding, forbidden love in the flashbacks between Christina and her boyfriend Isaac (in a perfectly understated performance by Y’lan Noel).

Echoing Christina’s photography, Stella Meghie is most interested in the character’s reactions in each scene, soaking in the quiet pauses, soft laughter, or subtle glances. These scenes unfold in a beautiful fashion thanks to Mark Schwartztbard’s cinematography. He uses light and shadow to emphasize important turning points in the story – from a dark hurricane casting a shadow on a timid love affair to showing light peaking through the cracks and windows of a homemade darkroom, attempting to break through the rigid walls the characters have built around them.

The scope of the film feels a little restrained, despite Louisiana and New York both existing as a rich tapestry for potential scenes. Neither city plays much of a part, as so much of the story unfolds in buildings or houses. At many points, I wondered if this would make for a better stage play instead of a theatrical experience so that the energy and romance that was meant to be on-screen might be more present in an intimate setting. 

In the end, Robert Glasper’s brilliantly moody and romantic jazz score is leaned on heavily to carry the emotional beats, but it can only go so far to set the mood and convey the feelings that are too often spoken on-screen instead of felt. THE PHOTOGRAPH fails to excite the mind or the heart. Lakeith Stanfield and Issa Rae are both, naturally, standoffish, making for characters who might actually be better off focusing on their careers rather than love. Forget the spark, not even a match is in sight between the two of them. Perhaps the film’s message of “give love a chance” wouldn’t be as lost on the audience if it was more palpable on screen.

Overall score: 1.5 out of 4

The PHOTOGRAPH opens in theaters Feb. 14th

Win Free Passes To The St. Louis Advance Screening Of THE PHOTOGRAPH Tomorrow Night!

On Valentine’s Day, Issa Rae (HBO’s Insecure, Little) and LaKeith Stanfield (FX’s Atlanta, Sorry to Bother You) connect in a romance where a woman must learn from the secrets in her mother’s past if she is to move forward and allow herself to love and be loved. THE PHOTOGRAPH opens in Theaters February 14 but lucky St. Louisans will get a chance to see it in advance for free!

Enter for your chance to win two free passes to the St. Louis advance screening ofTHE PHOTOGRAPH. The theatrical sneak preview will be on February 12th at 7pm.

Leave your name and email address in our comments section below.

Watch an Intimate Conversation About Black Love and the Return of Black Romantic Cinema to the Big Screen with the Stars of THE PHOTOGRAPH

THE PHOTOGRAPH – In Theaters February 14

On Valentine’s Day, Issa Rae (HBO’s Insecure, Little) and LaKeith Stanfield (FX’s Atlanta, Sorry to Bother You) connect in a romance where a woman must learn from the secrets in her mother’s past if she is to move forward and allow herself to love and be loved.

When famed photographer Christina Eames unexpectedly dies, she leaves her estranged daughter Mae Morton (Rae) hurt, angry and full of questions. When a photograph tucked away in a safe-deposit box is found, Mae finds herself on a journey delving into her mother’s early life and ignites a powerful, unexpected romance with a rising-star journalist, Michael Block (Stanfield).

From writer-director Stella Meghie (The Weekend, Jean of the Joneses) from her original screenplay comes a sweeping love story about forgiveness and finding the courage to seek the truth, no matter where it may lead you.

The Photograph is produced by Will Packer, blockbuster producer of Girls Trip, the Ride Along franchise, and ten movies that have opened No. 1 at the U.S. box office, including Night School, No Good Deed and Think Like a Man, and by James Lopez, president of Will Packer Productions. The film is executive produced by Meghie, Erika Hampson (co-producer Late Night, Life Itself) and Rae.

The film also stars Chanté Adams (Roxanne Roxanne) as Mae’s young mother Christina, Y’lan Noel (HBO’s Insecure) as Christina’s secret love, and Rob Morgan (Mudbound) as Isaac Jefferson, a New Orleans fisherman with a mysterious connection to Mae’s mother.

Genre: Romance

Cast: Issa Rae, LaKeith Stanfield, Chanté Adams, Y’lan Noel, Rob Morgan, Lil Rel Howery and Courtney B. Vance

Director: Stella Meghie

Writer: Stella Meghie

Producers: Will Packer, James Lopez

Executive Producers: Stella Meghie, Erika Hampson, Issa Rae

Win Free Passes To The St. Louis Advance Screening Of KNIVES OUT

Acclaimed writer and director Rian Johnson (Brick, Looper, Star Wars: The Last Jedi) pays tribute to mystery mastermind Agatha Christie in KNIVES OUT, a fresh, modern-day murder mystery where everyone is a suspect.  When renowned crime novelist Harlan Thrombey (Christopher Plummer) is found dead at his estate just after his 85th birthday, the inquisitive and debonair Detective Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) is mysteriously enlisted to investigate. From Harlan’s dysfunctional family to his devoted staff, Blanc sifts through a web of red herrings and self-serving lies to uncover the truth behind Harlan’s untimely death.

With an all-star ensemble cast that also includes Chris Evans, Ana de Armas, Jamie Lee Curtis, Michael Shannon, Don Johnson, Toni Collette, LaKeith Stanfield, Katherine Langford and Jaeden Martell, KNIVES OUT is a fun, witty and stylish whodunit guaranteed to keep audiences guessing until the very end.

KNIVES OUT opens in St. Louis on November 27th

Enter for your chance to win two free passes to the St. Louis advance screening of KNIVES OUT. The theatrical sneak preview will be on November 19 at 7pm.

Answer the Following: Best known as the writer-director of Star Wars: The Last Jedi (and the upcoming new Star Wars trilogy), Rian Johnson got his start in 2005 with the small-scale murder mystery, Brick. The film, which starred a young Joseph Gordon-Levitt in a Dashiell Hammett style story set in a California high school, set the template for the films which followed – The Brothers Bloom (2008), Looper (2012) — along with Johnson’s TV work on Breaking Bad, taking innovative approaches to familiar genres. With Knives Out, Johnson, employs a similar approach, here taking the tropes of an Agatha Christie mystery to tell a thoroughly contemporary story.

What is your favorite Whodunnit film?

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Rated PG-13 for thematic elements including brief violence, some strong language, sexual references, and drug material

https://knivesout.movie/

THE GIRL IN THE SPIDER’S WEB: A NEW DRAGON TATTOO STORY – Review

It’s reboot time once more, but this one’s not another entry in the horror genre, as the recent HALLOWEEN and SUSPIRIA, but it does have a connection, though slight. The source flick doesn’t go back 40 years, merely seven. That’s when Hollywood decided there needed to be an English-language film adaptation of a book series that was an international sensation. Steig Larsson’s THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO was a huge hit inspiring a film version of that and its two sequels in his native Sweden. Ah, but America could certainly make it into a monster hit, and even though that foreign language trilogy played here at the “art house” cinemas, Sony Studios brought in director David Fincher (FIGHT CLUB) and screenwriter Steve Zaillian (SEARCHING FOR BOBBY FISHER), and cast Bond himself Daniel Craig along with relative movie newcomer Rooney Mara. The results were…tepid. This was not to be the start of a franchise, so the plans for a US trilogy were scrapped. But much has happened since 2011, mainly the MeToo and Time’sUp movement making headlines with horrific stories of sexual intimidation, harassment, and abuse of women. Perhaps the time is exactly right for the story of a lone female swooping in to exact justice on the powerful men that pummel and degrade. Maybe audiences are ready for the return of Lisbeth Salander, in a different tale, now known as THE GIRL IN THE SPIDER’S WEB: A NEW DRAGON TATTOO STORY.

This “new story” actually starts with a flashback. In a dark mansion, far from the cities of Sweden, ten-year-old Lisbeth Salander plays chess with her slightly older sister Camilla in their gloomy nursery. A servant breaks the silence, summoning them to their father’s master bedroom (mother is out of the picture). When Lisbeth realizes his demented intentions, she backs away toward the balcony, several stories above the snow covered grounds. She gives her sister a pleading stare, but Camilla will not join her escape. Lisbeth tumbles into the nearby woods and disappears. In the present day, she is wanted by the Stockholm police for a series of attacks on prominent men, who were usually beating and raping their wives, co-workers, and daughters. After her latest job, she speeds her motorcycle back to an empty old warehouse and awaits her next “assignment”. Meanwhile, her crime-fighting aide, reporter Mikal Blomkvist (Sverrir Gudnason) complains to his married/editor lover Erika (Vicky Krieps) about their news magazine’s arrogant current owner. Lisbeth (Claire Foy) is not waiting very long. She must use her considerable computer hacking skills to retrieve a dangerous piece of software from the US and return it to its creator Fran Balder (Stephen Merchant). Balder’s work, dubbed Firefall, can give a single user complete access and control of all nuclear missiles and rockets hidden in silos around the world. She is so skilled that only Edwin Needham (Lakeith Stanfield) is alerted of the program’s removal from the US security systems. Somehow word leaks out and Lisbeth’s home is set afire by masked gunmen who grab her laptop with Firefall installed. The same gunmen go after Balder and his pre-teen son August (Christopher Convery) when they are given protection by the local police. With intel from Mikael, Lisbeth learns that she was the target of the Spider Gang, a brutal band of Russian assassins. Can she keep two steps ahead of them, the police, and Needham and take back Firefall before it gets into the wrong hands. And just who is the mysterious leader of the Spiders?

The title pretty much sums up this thriller, mainly that Lisbeth played by the very talented Ms. Foy is “front and center”. Just weeks after her stunning supporting turn as Mrs. Armstrong in FIRST MAN, she proves her ability to carry a film as a dynamic action star. Her character is an avenging angel in black, in her first adult sequence literally wrapping up a bully in her web, submitting him to physical (and financial) punishment. But Foy makes this super-heroine very human. We see the fear in her eyes as she realizes that the odds against her may be overwhelming. And she pays a price for her actions in pure pain, whether stapling shut an oozing wound or careening off her cycle. Foy shows her as a haunted, lonely soul who can barely exist between “jobs”. It’s a complex, compelling performance. Unfortunately, her supporting cast are saddled with very simple, sometimes cliched characters. There’s not a strong connection between Lisbeth and Mikael, who’s played by Gudnason like a sullen co-worker, reminding me of Beck Bennett playing a befuddled Nordic tourist in an SNL sketch. Sylvia Hoeks, so good in BLADE RUNNER 2049, is pure deadpan banal evil as an enigmatic woman in red. Comic mastermind Merchant is quite compelling as the guilt-ridden scientist and divorced dad, sort of a modern internet Victor Frankenstein, trying to recapture his monster before it devours the planet. Stanfield is cool and confident, a man on a mission, who slowly begins to admire Lisbeth and her crew. And there’s some good comic relief from Cameron Britton as Lisbeth’s computer consultant/tech wiz only known as “Plague”.

So, you recall my mention of a “horror connection”? Well, that’s because the film’s director, Fede Alvarez, made a name for himself for the one-two box office punch of the 2013 EVIL DEAD reboot and the very entertaining “sleeper hit” of 2016 DON’T BREATHE. Now he’s made his debut as an expert action director, though there are several chilling scenes. Most notably, it’s the reveal of the Spider Gang’s stomach-churning retaliation against a former member who got too “chatty”. Whew, that’s the stuff of nightmares, along with a skin-tight back leather cocoon (hooked up to a device sucks in any air). Fede also co-wrote the script with Jay Basu and Steven Knight (basing it on the book by David Lagercrantz using Larsson’s characters), which has a definite Bond/Bourne feel with its software “MacGuffin” that turns deadly weapons against their makers. But unlike those “super spies” Salander, in the opening scenes, is a champion for individuals rather than countries. With her black hood and jumpsuit, accented by a white makeup mask about her eyes, she’s a near unstoppable “bat-woman” or even a “lady Punisher”, who’ll give these very very bad men “just what they got comin’ to ’em”. We do see a few of the plot twists “coming across the fjords” (another faked suicide, eh), but Foy is so terrific and the action set pieces are so nail-biting, that we can forgive and almost forget as we wonder whether she can survive. It’s not much of a spoiler to say that this will hopefully spark another (not saying franchise or even trilogy) thriller involving THE GIRL IN THE SPIDER’S WEB.

4 Out of 5

SORRY TO BOTHER YOU – Review

Lakeith Stanfield stars as Cassius Green in Boots Riley’s SORRY TO BOTHER YOU, an Annapurna Pictures release.

Director/writer Boots Riley’s ambitious, inspired social satire SORRY TO BOTHER YOU sets its protagonist, a young black man trying to make a living as a telemarketer, in a world nearly like our own but imbued with the surreal, magical realism and even science fiction. The comedy is excellent but the director also makes hold-no-punches points about our country’s unequal economic system.

Bitingly funny, creative and intelligent, SORRY TO BOTHER YOU is a welcome breeze shaking up the summer doldrums and our comfortable assumptions.

Lakeith Stanfield is outstanding as Cassius Green, a likable African American every-man living in Oakland, California, who is struggling to just trying to pay the rent but ambitious to get ahead in life. His girlfriend Detroit (Tessa Thompson) is an aspiring performance and visual artist but works a minimum job as a sign-twirler. Cassius drives a junker car and lives in his uncle’s garage, but the uncle is on the edge of foreclosure. Just in time, Cassius lands a job at a telemarketing firm, RegalView, but new opportunities really open up for him after an older worker named Langston, played by Danny Glover, tips him off to use his “white voice” (provided by David Cross) when selling to customers. Soon he’s making sales and he finds himself conflicted between moving up the corporate ladder and standing by his co-workers as they strike for better wages.

It’s a classic conundrum but Riley uses it as a springboard that takes us through some unusual twists that touch on race, capitalism, prisons, economic opportunity, artists, and other social issues in a fearless and effective fashion. Cassius finds himself lifted from poverty into wealth and material comfort but also finds himself at odds with his own values.

The “white voice” that Cassius and other black characters use are supplied by actors Patton Oswalt, David Cross and Rosario Dawson. Riley mines the “white voice” thing for comedy gold, but never loses the pointed nature of the joke.

This film is the feature film debut for Riley, the head of San Francisco Bay area hip-hop collective The Coup. The film met with critical acclaim when it debuted at Sundance and has been highly anticipated by film buffs.

One can see some parallels with GET OUT but this production was well underway when that film came out. The film starts out in the similar territory as workplace comedy OFFICE SPACE but gets much more surreal as it goes, particularly after Cassius discovers a sinister plan by the company’s celebrity CEO. In an inspired bit of casting, Armie Hammer plays billionaire CEO Steve Lift, a creepy performance that is perhaps Hammer’s best. Another company the billionaire is involved in is called WorryFree, a combination workplace and housing “option” marketed to working people but which looks a lot like prison and offers life-long contract that sounds a lot like slavery.

The director is aided greatly by lead Lakeith Stanfield and a strong supporting cast that includes Omari Hardwick, Jermaine Fowler, Steven Yeun, and Terry Crews. Stanfield seems to be having a moment now. More audiences might recognize him from his small but affecting part in GET OUT but he also delivered a remarkable performance in the less-seen but moving CROWN HEIGHTS, a true-story drama about a young Caribbean immigrant falsely convicted of a crime whose childhood friend fights for years to free him. Stanfield should have received more attention for that affecting performance but perhaps this role will give this gifted actor the fame he deserves.

Sometimes comedy can say hard things more effectively than if they are said directly, as anyone who has seen DR. STRANGLOVE can attest. SORRY TO BOTHER YOU starts out with laugh-out-loud comedy and pointed situations and visual jokes anyone might recognize, but then the film goes deeper. And deeper – down a rabbit hole that runs under our socioeconomic structure, until Cassius Green is Alice in a nightmarish Wonderland that is a fun-house mirror of our own.

This sharp-witted comedy touches on social media, twisted reality-show entertainment, and makes other social commentary in a pointed but comically effective fashion. Where director/writer Boots Riley might lose some audience members is when the film veers directly in science fiction, with an uncomfortable turn that some, particularly black audiences, might find disturbing. Others will follow along with the director in this risky move.

SORRY TO BOTHER YOU is not perfect but it is pretty darn good, a brilliantly ambitious social satire that has the courage to say things about this society that need saying. Boots Riley deserves credit for his willingness to say what he has to say, even when it makes his audience uncomfortable, and Lakeith Stanfield deserves recognition for his winning performance as the ordinary/ not ordinary guy at the center of this excursion into modern madness.

RATING: 4 1/2 out of 5 stars

Check Out the New SORRY TO BOTHER YOU Red Band Trailer and Posters

STFU – New SORRY TO BOTHER YOU Materials?!?!

The SORRY TO BOTHER YOU Red Band Trailer and Posters are now available. But wait…there’s more…

In need of a new car? Well, lucky you because The SORRY TO BOTHER YOU Official Paraphernalia Store is NOW OPEN!

Written and directed by Boots Riley, SORRY TO BOTHER YOU stars Lakeith Stanfield, Tessa Thompson, Armie Hammer, Terry Crews, Steven Yeun, Omari Hardwick, Jermaine Fowler and Danny Glover.


Check out the trailer and new posters below and be sure to visit the new SORRY TO BOTHER YOU Store HERE to get BOTHERED!

In an alternate present-day version of Oakland, telemarketer Cassius Green discovers a magical key to professional success, propelling him into a macabre universe.

Annapurna Pictures Releases Trailer For Director Boots Riley’s SORRY TO BOTHER YOU

Here’s a first look at the brand new trailer for director Boots Riley’s SORRY TO BOTHER YOU, an Annapurna Pictures release. The film screened on Sunday at SXSW.

The cast includes Lakeith Stanfield, Tessa Thompson, Armie Hammer, Patton Oswalt, Steven Yeun, Terry Crews, David Cross, Danny Glover, Omari Hardwick, Marcella Bragio,Tom Woodruff Jr., Kate Berlant, Jermaine Fowler, Robert Longstreet, Teresa Navarro.

In an alternate present-day version of Oakland, telemarketer Cassius Green discovers a magical key to professional success, propelling him into a macabre universe.

In January The Wrap reported that “Annapurna had picked up the Sundance telemarketer drama, which is the directorial debut of Boots Riley and produced by Forest Whitaker’s Significants Productions, the studio behind Ryan Coogler’s debut feature film, FRUITVALE STATION.”

(l to r.) Lakeith Stanfield as Cassius Green and Armie Hammer as Steve Lift star in director Boots Riley’s SORRY TO BOTHER YOU, an Annapurna Pictures release.

SORRY TO BOTHER YOU opens in theaters July 6.

Visit the official site: sorrytobotheryou.movie

Catch the new posters below.

CROWN HEIGHTS – Review

Lakeith Stanfield as Colin Warner, in director Matt Ruskin’s CROWN HEIGHTS. Photo courtesy of IFC Films ©

CROWN HEIGHTS is a gripping thriller/drama based on the true story of a teenage immigrant from Trinidad accused of murdering a man he never met. The film takes us on a harrowing journey of an innocent man’s descent into the criminal justice system but also illuminates the resilience of the human spirit and the power of friendship. Elevated by a remarkable quiet yet powerful performance by Lakeith Stanfield, CROWN HEIGHTS is as tense and nail-biting as any taut fictional crime thriller, but with the chill of truth underscoring the events.

Writer/director Matt Ruskin based his film on a true story of injustice brought to light in an episode of NPR’s “This American Life.” Colin Warner, an 18-year-old Trinidad native living in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Crown Heights in 1980, is falsely accused of murder, convicted despite the lack of evidence, and served more than twenty years until freed largely by the efforts of his staunch childhood friend Carl “KC” King.

If there is a quick take away from the chilling situation in CROWN HEIGHTS, it might be lawyer up. The true story-based drama offers a lesson in what can happen without adequate legal representation, even if you are innocent of the crime of which you are accused, even if the charge seems absurd, and especially if you are poor and non-white. The film is Kafkaesque in its litany of absurd injustices, illustrating the many ways in which an innocent person can fall between the cracks of the American criminal justice system. However, the flaws of that system are the background to an inspirational personal story of friendship.

When the film opens, 18-year-old Colin Warner (Lakeith Stanfield) is living with his mother in Crown Heights and training to become a mechanic alongside his childhood friend Carl “KC” King (former NFL player Nnamdi Asomugha). Colin is not a bad kid but no angel either. When his mother asks him to pick up their television from the repair shop, Colin steals a car rather than lug the set across town, something he does with an ease that suggests he has stolen cars before. So when the police pick him up, Colin is not surprised – until he learns the charge is murder.

Colin Warner is identified as the killer by another teen-aged Caribbean immigrant (Skylab Brooks), who Warner also had never met. The total absurdity of the situation makes Colin confident that he will be released but when that is slow to happen, he asks his friend KC to ask around in the neighborhood and find out who the real shooter is. But even with the actual suspect in hand, the authorities will not let Colin go. Instead, they peg him as the driver, and try the two jointly, so a conviction for one is a conviction for both. The killer refuses to tell authorities Colin had nothing to do with the murder, hoping Colin’s innocence might help him out. Although the one witness, a frightened 15-year-old Haitian immigrant, recants on the witness stand, the jury convicts. The judge, who suspects where guilt really lies, gives the shooter the maximum allowed sentence and Colin the minimum. The problem is the 18-year-old Colin is considered an adult and the killer is still a juvenile, and Colin’s minimum is less than the murderer’s maximum.

Colin’s false accusation took place in 1980, at the height of a crime wave in New York, and at the beginning of the Reagan era “tough on crime” wave of mandatory sentencing and prison building. In New York, overwhelmed police were trying to close cases quickly. Neither Colin nor his immigrant mother have a good grasp on how the American criminal justice system works and blindly trust the public defender. Colin is lucky in that the defender assigned to him means well but the lawyer is clearly overwhelmed as well as inexperienced.

 

The film cleverly marks Colin’s years in jail with clips of the various presidents giving “tough on crime” speeches emphasizing on mandatory sentencing and advocating more prisons.

A major strength of this film is the performances by both Lakeith Stanfield and Nnamdi Asomugha, who was also on of the film’s producers. Stanfield’s quiet, un-showy performance imbues Colin with a shy charm that makes him an appealing as well as sympathetic figure for the audience. Colin changes from a resentful teen to a man during his incarceration. Settling into just marking time in prison, he is jolted out of that drift by the death of his beloved grandmother back in Trinidad, a pivotal moment that motivates him to earn his GED, study law, and become a teacher to other inmates. What he always refuses to do is admit guilt for a crime he did not commit, for which he pays a heavy price.

His tentative steps towards romance with another childhood friend, Antoinette (Natalie Paul) are interrupted by the false conviction but he reconnects with her while in prison and they two fall in love and marry while he is still incarcerated. Paul also gives a warm performance, adding a softening touch to Colin’s circumstances and representing a hope for his future, and their scenes together are touching and heart-rending.

The film hearkens back to Colin’s Trinidad childhood periodically in dream-like sequences, reminding viewers of the very different world in which he grew up.

The first half of the film focuses on Colin but as his years in prison stretch out, the focus shifts to KC and efforts to free him. Asomugha shines in this second half, portraying KC’s obsessive, meticulous efforts to free his friend. His close friendship with KC, who he grew up with in Trinidad, makes them seem more like brothers but it is KC’s sense of justice that keeps him committed to freeing Colin even when Colin himself has given up. Colin’s false conviction transforms KC’s life as much as Colin’s, as the relentless KC borrows money for lawyers, endangers his own marriage, and takes a job as a process-server and legal courier as a way to learn the courts and legal system. Finally, KC re-investigates the crime and uncovers facts missed in the authorities’ hurry to get a conviction.

The story of incarceration suggests films like PAPILLON and MIDNIGHT EXPRESS but with the extra horror that this is an innocent person slipping so easily into the maw of our own criminal justice system. However, the film takes a personal focus that visually recalls last year’s MOONLIGHT. We are moved by Colin’s personal resilience but even more so by his friend KC’s commitment to justice, no matter the cost to himself.

That story of friendship might be what sticks with audiences but also a frightening awareness of how easily an innocent person can slip into the maw of our criminal justice system. CROWN HEIGHTS is a gripping film that touches audience’s hearts but makes them think as well, but it also might be a star-making role for the remarkable Lakeith Stanfield.

RATING: 4 1/2 out of 5 stars