BEFORE: All right, I don't want to jinx anything but I've got a couple things this week that are sort of like job interviews. Of course, I tried applying for things all summer long, this is really my first time job hunting while making full use of the internet, so I've got all the job sites sending me notices, I'm applying to every one that I feel I'm right for, and it's been a lot. But OF COURSE I get three interview inquiries just one week before the theater opens back up for student orientation for the fall semester. So really, if nothing comes from these interviews this week, I'll be OK, just keep doing what I've been doing, and September and October are going to be very busy months, but I'll still keep looking for another part-time gig, just in case. My chances of getting promoted at my current gig are now almost nil, but I won't get into that right now. Let me just handle these interviews this week and take it from there.
I'm also going to get my hearing checked on Thursday, I already have a hearing aid for my right ear, but now I think I'm also losing hearing in my left ear, but I want to be sure. There were a few days where everything just sounded like I was underwater, but it's eased up a bit, so maybe I had a summer head cold or something. Anyway, I'm going to have it checked - three years ago when I settled on the hearing aid solution, I never bothered to try and find out WHY I was losing my hearing, so I should probably try to find out about that and make sure it's nothing serious. Between my job, interviews and the hearing test, really I've got a full week. I got the Dept. of Labor to count my second job last year, which has now raised my unemployment benefits, so at least there's money coming in while the school is basically on summer break. But that all changes next week. I will try to keep the chain alive while switching to early-morning rising, even if I have to double-up on the weekends.
Gralen Bryant Banks carries over from "Hit Man".
THE PLOT: A couple's first date takes an unexpected turn when a police officer pulls them over.
AFTER: This is a film about a traffic stop gone wrong, involving a white officer and a black driver, there's certainly precedent for this in the real world, probably hundreds of times. Immediately it's a tense, racially charged situation, anything could happen, and we all know it's likely to end with the officer shooting someone because they didn't follow his instructions, or they tried to take cell phone video of him, or maybe he's just a bad racist dude on a power trip. Maybe there are a dozen ways this incident could go south, or maybe it will all be fine, if the black passengers just do everything he says and keep their tempers in check. That's the BEST possible outcome, but then of course, we wouldn't have a movie, would we, and even that BEST possible outcome implies some kind of racial hierarchy, just because of history, and any white man telling a black person what to do just strikes an all-too-familiar tone, then you add in the power the officer holds and the gun that's in his holster, and come on, somebody's going to get shot, aren't they?
This would happen on a first date, too, wouldn't it? Queen and Slim met on Tinder and didn't do their best work trying to connect with each other during dinner, so they've already resolved that there will be no second date, he's just driving her home, and maybe swerved a bit too much, or he missed using his turn signal (so the cop SAYS) and now look where we are. The cop wants to pop the trunk and then maybe search the whole rest of the car, while Queen, an attorney, starts asking, "Do you have a warrant?" and threatening to pull out her phone. Yes, she should know better, but in the heat of the moment things get, well, heated, and the officer shoots Queen in the leg. Slim tackles him and ends up with his gun, and shoots the officer in self-defense.
Sure, they COULD stay and explain the situation to the next cop that shows up, and maybe the dash-cam footage will back them up, but come on, what's to prevent the next cop from shooting them when he sees the dead cop in the street? So they ditch their cell phones and go on the run, from Ohio they cross the border into Kentucky and figure their best bet is to make their way down to New Orleans, where Queen has family. That's a 12-hour drive, at best, but they can't travel at top speed for fear of drawing attention to themselves. They run out of gas (and money) in Kentucky but the sheriff who gives them a lift to the gas station soon finds himself locked in their trunk while they drive off in his pick-up. Well, switching cars is another good way to avoid attention.
They hit NOLA and visit Earl, Queen's uncle. He's some kind of pimp and he offers to let them stay for two nights because he owes Queen a big favor, but his fights with his girls are so loud that the cops come by on a noise complaint/domestic violence check, and that's not a good thing, not with two fugitives hiding in the house. So they get one of Earl's cars and directions for a helpful couple in the next state, Earl saved the man's life while in the military overseas. But after an evening dancing in a bar (where they're recognized, but it's a safe space) they encounter car trouble, and have to spend all the travel money Earl gave them to get the car fixed.
By the time they reach the helpful couple, there are protests being organized in the towns they pass through, their wanted status has been made public, but as you might imagine, the people of color support them, not the police, and they've become some kind of black Bonnie & Clyde, only without the bank robbery. This is both harmful and helpful, because their images have been on every news broadcast, but they also encounter black police officers who secretly let them get away.
The goal is to get to a man in Florida who can get them on an unlicensed plane to Cuba, but by the time they get there, the bounty on them is up to $500,000 which means they can't really trust anybody. Essentially it's a race to the airport with the police not far behind, and no spoilers here about how it ends. But you can probably figure out how it HAS to end.
I want to say this film arrived before its time, just a year after it was released George Floyd was in the headlines for being killed by police in Detroit while he was "resisting arrest". Then we had all those "Black Lives Matter" during the pandemic, which seems very similar to the nationwide protests depicted here. But this film isn't really about actual events, except that it is, in the way it's about every incident between a white cop and a black driver, all rolled into one and taken to the extreme. And for once taking the story to the extreme only makes it more powerful, instead of ridiculous.
Directed by Melina Matsoukas
Also starring Daniel Kaluuya (last seen in "Nope"), Jodie Turner-Smith (last seen in "Murder Mystery 2"), Bokeem Woodbine (last seen in "Old Dads"), Chloe Sevigny (last seen in "Lizzie"), Flea (last heard in "Inside Out 2"), Sturgill Simpson (last seen in "Killers of the Flower Moon"), Indya Moore (last seen in "Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom"), Benito Martinez (last seen in "Fool's Paradise"), Jahi Di'Allo Winston (last seen in "We Have a Ghost"), D.A. Obahor (last seen in "Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F"), Bryant Tardy (last heard in "Leo"), Thom Gossom Jr. (last seen in "Jeepers Creepers 2"), Melanie Halfkenny, Brian Thornton, Joseph Poliquin (last seen in "Five Nights at Freddy's"), Little Freddie King, Karen Kaia Livers, Gregory Keith Grainger, Reynolds Washam, Andre De'Sean Shanks, Robert Walker Branchaud, Colby Boothman (last seen in "Beautiful Creatures"), Andy Dylan, Regina Swanson
with cameos from Soledad O'Brien (last seen in "Rather"), Gayle King (last seen in "Join or Die")
RATING: 6 out of 10 boxes of sneakers
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