Daylight.
121 Mins. Starring: Ashton Sanders, Jeffrey Wright & Yahya Abdul-Matten II. Director: Joe Robert Cole.
"F### off me!" There's a moment in 'The Equalizer 2' that should have made our new 'Scene Stealing' feature breaking down the best scenes of movies in more detail. So here it is. "Do you know where the f### we at?!" 'Moonlight' star Ashton Sanders asks (warns) movie legend Denzel Washington. "I do...do you?" The Academy Award winner counters in an Oscar moment as he takes in the graffiti and the pissy hallways of the projects around him. "Is this what you want", Denzel asks again mere minutes after saving Sanders with two guns from taking part in a drive-by initiation which would have seen him join a gang and part with his dreams...and probably his life, for good. "I thought you wanted to draw?" "DRAW?!" Sanders replies almost mockingly after arms were just done so. "Is that s### gona put food on my f###### mom's table?" "You need to be gangster...okay. If that's what you want to do. Let's get jumped in right now." CLICK! Washington takes the safety off. "Start with me." He tries to hand a refusing Sanders his weapon. "Come on killer". He prods him in his vest chest with the gun. "Put it right there". He puts the gun in his hand. "There you go," he says like feeding a baby food. Puts it to his head right between the eyes using Sanders hand. "Five pounds of pressure that's all it takes." Ashton won't do it, despite the "c'mon gangster" mocks and this dynamite actor with a fuse ready to blow is a coiled spring as he walks away gun in hand, tapping it on the elevator door that almost took him and dragged him down to hell. Denzel with the same reassuring fatherly tone asks for the gun back. He tells Ashton the people on the other side of that elevator are liars...and guess what? He is too! As he wraps his arm around Sanders and puts the same gun to his head, daring him to tell him what he sees when he looks him right between the eyes like the big boss he killed in the first film. Ashton goes from 0 to 100-if 0 was all his pent up, macho bravado bull#### rage and 100 was every fear he ever had-in a second as the life flashes before his eyes. "Man ain't spelt G-U-N son," Denzel Washington says in one of the greatest lines of his G.O.A.T. career. "You got a choice," he carries on lowering his gun, teaching him a lesson as it's just his loving arm around him now. "You got a chance". "Use it whilst you're still alive," he says, pulling him in with emphasis. "You don't know what death is". Temple to temple he gets right between his eyes. "YOU HAVE NO IDEA WHAT DEATH IS!"
Just two heavyweight actors, young and old, but in the same class. Emotionally boxing in the same scene together. All for a good movie...but an even greater moment we hope people who really don't really go to the movies anymore get to see. It's the different animal, but same beast of a performance, Sanders put into one third of the Little 'Moonlight' movie that wasn't just another Best Supporting Oscar moment for 'Green Book's' own Marhershala Ali, but also the biggest Best Picture at the Academy Awards no matter what you think you read in that envelope Warren. Like the moment his bullied mercilessly character is walking home and with all the pent up rage wants to hit back to all those emotional and nerve shredding attacks. But he's just on that road alone. Until he finally does exploding in a rage that breaks apart a chair all over the same bully who the previous period made two friends fight each other to the death of their friendship. This kid would never be the same again, as new 'Predator' and 'Bird Box' star Trevante Rhodes showed. Just like this young 'Straight Outta Compton' actor and forthcoming, untitled Fred Hampton project star who is on a next up, Lakeith Stanfield level of legacy making talent this side of 'Atlanta', or the Carson, California City Ashton comes from. But right now he could really use Denzel Washington's great 'Equalizer' in this movie were he's talking to us in pitch perfect narration about being caught behind bars and between the four walls prison of the streets where crime engulf him like crack did impoverished communities, colorblind. Seeing nor black or white, but just vulnerable individuals for it to get its hooks into. A disease as cruel and indiscriminate as COVID.
Quarantined in a socially isolated lockdown that is making us prisoner to our own thoughts going round and round like an empty cup rattling against the bars. We can on some level relate to the claustrophobic nature of this movie given to us from Netflix at a time there they are really bringing it as we're staying home. From Michelle Obama documentaries ('Becoming'), to New York's finest Jerry Seinfeld comedy specials ('23 Hours To Kill') and of course ESPN's 30 For 30 week-by-week 'Last Dance' between Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls. And we haven't even got to the movies yet. But boy are they good for a service that doesn't just stream shows, but enters The Academy finally like 'The Irishman', 'The Two Popes' or a 'Marriage Story'. And day and night like Kid Cudi, 'All Day and a Night' directed by Joe Robert Cole (the Emmy nominated, Writers Guild Of America winning screenwriter of 'American Crime Story: The People vs OJ Simpson' and, 'Black Panther') is as cinematic as they come even on your laptop or smartphone that's as plugged into your living room as you are. Now if Sanders searing eyes reveal a fire inside to his otherwise calm and chill demeanour, the restrained passion of 'Boardwalk Empire' star, Bond's Felix and 'The Batman's' forthcoming new Commissioner Gordon Jeffrey Wright is legendary. Like his 'Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close' Tom Hanks movie scene steal at the desk in his office after hours with a coffee cup that may just be laced chased with something else as you can see the emotion in his eyes as he's trying to hold it all together, but let's it all fall apart in solace, relating with the child star of the picture. Or the sobering scene in 'Westworld' we will never spoil. Jeffrey is just that right here playing pops to Sanders son in a movie that brings out the big guns like 'Aquaman's' Black Manta, 'Watchmen', 'Us' and forthcoming 'The Matrix 4' star Yahya Abdul-Matten II. Oozing the form of his life with an uzi as a stylish gangster with guns and roses on his shirt who shows you the life that should not attract you by the collar as you try to keep it as straight laced as one foot in front of the other. From the projects to the penitentiary, this slow burning, but utterly compelling father and son drama that involves the whole community is probably one of the more real and raw things and films Netflix have showcased since Idris Elba's award worthy 'Beasts Of No Nation' that could even drain Leonardo DiCaprio's 'Blood Diamond'. One fast and furious street racing scene will really run you off the road as it does donuts around you. There's lessons to be learnt from this as life runs rings around you ragged. But from the air of the prison yard, to being caught in the wind of the streets, this circle of family life rooted in poetic injustice is delivered by two powerful performances from two powerhouse performers (one of simmering rage, the other of subtle nuance), planting seeds like grace notes. All in a day and night's work. TIM DAVID HARVEY.
Further Filming: 'Starred Up', 'Moonlight', 'The Equalizer 2'.
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