Black Rose.
108 Mins. Starring: Naomie Harris, Tyrese Gibson, Mike Colter, Reid Scott & Frank Grillo. Director: Deon Taylor.
New York City, the year 2000. The Big Apple. Samuel L. Jackson's 'Shaft' before the Netflix sequel of the same name last year famously declared his private dick that's a "sex machine to all the chicks" was, "too black for the uniform, too blue for the brothers". New Orleans, Crescent City, 2020. The Big Easy. Naomie Harris' compelling cop character in 'Black and Blue' is facing the same both sides of the gun fate. Continuing our latest trend of quarantine checking out the movies we missed whilst lost in translation. Doing it big in Japan with the social isolating. Let's take a look at October's very own 'Black and Blue' starring 'No Time To Die's' Naomie Harris and '2 Fast, 2 Furious' star Tyrese Gibson. Now both their James Bond and 'Fast and Furious' sequels are on license to chill, pit stop indefinite hiatus thanks to the corona virus. But Moneypenny is right on the dollars and the superstar singer hits all the high notes with this cop/crime classic that has red and blue neon shine shades and shadows of the Los Angeles Times, Oscar winning 'Training Day', as Harris gets treated like Ethan Hawke's rookie in a French Quarter full of Denzel Washington Alonzo's. Okay...OKAY. It's like that? Looks like (New Orleans) Pelican(s) Bay is going to be the next place some of these corrupt cops heading for the shoe program are going to pick-up a Basketball like Lonzo to Zion. King Kong may not have s### on Denzel's 'Best Actor', but on 24 hour lockdown you could do worse than get 'Black and Blue' as we write about all the lost movies you should see whilst in your own living room prisons right now until we do the same. Don't just claw at Facebook feeds for the latest Netflix 'Tiger King' meme you feel you have to view. Spoiler alert, Carol Baskin killed her husband...and we haven't even streamed the show.
Mardi Gras is a long way from this city in this cop land movie, as this film drenched in rain in the middle of the swap still shows us the effects of Hurricane Katrina in a story of corruption that is all too real and all too today. Even the prize catalyst of this movie is more than a modern metaphor, but a literal symbol of the injustice that's going on today on screen and behind the camera. As footage found on the internet from West Point, Illinois shows two black men being walked out of a supermarket by a cop for wearing face masks? Face masks? For trying to keep themselves...and everyone else safe whilst just trying to buy groceries. And what's worse? You can see as clear as the middle of the day this was recorded that the cop had his hand on his service weapon, all whilst these individuals were complying fully. No justice, no peace. But for every bad cop unworthy of the badge, there's a hundred good cops showing us courtesy, professionalism and respect. They suffer from corruption too...only they have nowhere to run as well, as highlighted in the tensest scene were Harris is running from door-to-door knocking for help so she doesn't rat-a-tat-tat on heavens one. But no one will open up. Why? Because they don't want that heat. Or? Simply f### you! As one of the good ones, Winnie Mandela in 'Long Walk To Freedom', Naomie Harris OBE going by the book and for her partner covers for him one shift. Smelling a rat however she follows the one she's riding shotgun with as a temp and sees him and some more boys in blue, dripped in red shoot some unarmed perps who are talking with these cops more casually than an interrogation, although they feel the squeeze...execution style. Seeing whose just witnessed them giving last rights, they put two in Harris' beat cops vest. But they completely miss her bodycam. And the manhunt with all the forces hardware is on for the one piece of software that will no longer blur this thin blue line of duty.
Woop-woop. The sound of the police drowns out the swamp as it's flooded with blue closing in like Chadwick Boseman's fellow fall cop classic throwback, '21 Bridges'. And Harris and Gibson have to make it back to the precinct that feels longer than Bruce Willis and Mos Def's '16 Blocks' with every corner as crooked as the cracked concrete streets of a city still striving and surviving the struggle. Bent like the out of shape police department here, where finding an honest cop is like finding a donut in the Dunkin' box brought back from lunch. Harris going above the call of duty at her pay grade level here delivers her best yet. As the 'Pirates Of The Caribbean' actress leading with full screen-time unlike the spare change she had under the 'Moonlight' to make her supporting Oscar Mark is incredible and inspired as she influences and evokes every emotion in a physical performance that strains your nerve, will and trust. There are many crime films to cop that walk the beat, but none that run through tension and exhilaration quite like this. As Harris' bodycam moves and movie direction make you think of David Ayer's found footage 'End Of Watch' classic with Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Pena and what it would be like if all this was filmed that way. Whilst one tile hitting bathtub moment under the gun and circling the drain were your blood and evidence would just wash away calls back to one of our modern indie G.O.A.T's, Ethan Hawke's best begging and acting on screen on his 'Training Day' before he went all 'Brooklyn's Finest' like B.I.G. and Jay-Z crooked. And as this is Naomie's greatest she must escape the hood and the police that patrol it for her in a tension more terrifying than the outstanding one shot in 'True Detective' were Matthew McConaughey had to escape the hood and a gang of redneck, racist bikers at the same time, baseball bags and guns akimbo. That's not alright, alright, alright like the laid back Texan hosting a bingo party online for the states elderly during this COVID quarantine. All 8, all 8, what a Saint. But just before you think when it comes to this heat, Naomie has it worse than Al Pacino's 'Serpico', wondering which way to look or which way is up, Harris has help. And it's in the form of Tyrese Gibson. The 'Baby Boy' actor and singer has been the star of the show in franchises like the 'Fast and Furious' and 'Transformers' for decades now. But NOW from the humble supermarket beginnings of a man with as many broken pieces as dented tins on the shelves to the local, working class hero he becomes like his own journey from Watts, getting out of his own way Tyrese gives us more than his best performance since 'Four Brothers' (that needs a sequel like 'Five Brothers'). This is the 'Waist Deep', 'Death Race' and 'Ride Along' cameo too stars greatest role yet...as he also waits for his Marvel 'Morbius' with Jared Leto to be rewoke from the closed cinema dead. Let alone his most nuanced, honest and heartfelt for a police picture that doesn't paint by the book, but shows more humanity in a real world and force in dire and desperate need of that. And Harris' rookie is going to need all the help she can get even if she is strong enough to lead the way on her own like Blake Lively's 'Rhythm Section'. Especially with 'Warrior' and 'End Of Watch' star Frank Grillo leading the crook squad on her tail. Driving around in his gold American muscle as Harris hops the fence from backyard to backyard. Grillo on the grill was so good in Marvel's 'The Winter Soldier' taking on Captain America and the Falcon that will become him on Disney+, before becoming the classic Crossbones villain after his own origin story in 'Civil War', before then teaming up with Anthony Mackie again for Netflix's 'Point Blank'. But the reliable vet is at his best here too. Like the Hero of Harlem, Marvel and Netflix's 'Luke Cage' on the wrong side here, as Mike Colter's mob man in furs looks like he's going for the Maybach Music of Rick Ross. Rugh! And who knows whose side 'Venom' star Reid Scott is on, or what he's up to in Devon Taylor's best picture after his 'Chain Letter' and 'Traffik' salad days, before he works with Jamie Foxx on his 'All Star Weekend' next season. But as of this one, nothing is beating this black and blue right now. In Naomie Harris' Oscar winning 'Moonlight' movie they said in that light, "black boys look blue". But under the blue and white when it comes to the right that justice should know no colour, this is a notion that will never fade to black. TIM DAVID HARVEY.
Further Filming: '21 Bridges', '16 Blocks', 'Training Day'.
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