In this day and age of the 'black lives matter' era, Hollywood offers us a film that cmbines the complexities of what it's like to be not only black, but a cop as well. In the film "Black and Blue", the question of the day becomes: is it better to be black or a cop given the dire straights this civil servant must endure?
This is a fast-paced action thriller about a rookie cop, Alicia West (Naomie Harris) who inadvertently captures the murder of a young drug dealer on her body cam. After realizing that the murder was committed by corrupt cops, namely Terry Malone (Frank Grillo), Smitty (Beau Knapp) and Deacon Brown (James Moses Black), she teams up with the only one person from her community who, at first is reluctant, but then is willing help her, Milo 'Mouse' Jackson (Tyrese Gibson) as she attempts to escape both the criminals, namely Darius (Mike Colter) who are out for revenge and the police who are desperate to destroy the incriminating body cam footage.
Others to round out the cast are Reid Scott as Kevin, Nafessa Williams as Missy, Michael Papajohn as SRT Leader, Deneen Tyler as Captain Regina Hackett and Frankie Smith as Tez.
This was grittily and delineated well by director Deon Taylor ("Dead Tone" '07, "The Hustle" '08, "Nite Tales: The Movie" '08, "Chain Letter" '09, "Tony Roberts: I'm Different" '13, "Supremacy" '14, "Meet the Blacks" '16, "Traffik" '18, "The Intruder" '19) plus TV and shorts. Being an obvious message film, this filmmaker brings these characters to life using fear, intimidation and politics to extract that element of grit to convey what he needed to toward his audience. He is a social filmmaker with a crime side to him, and this can be an effective combination. This director is very busy considering he has three films in post-production. It was effectively written with a social bent by Peter A. Dowling ("Flightplan" '05, "Stag Night" '08, "Reasonable Doubt" '14, "Sacrifice" '16) plus TV. With all the crime dramas and, more to the point, all the crime films that have a racial implication to it, this certainly pushes the envelope where it puts both blacks and cops being able to empathize here. So much of the time films are about blacks being treated horribly by white cops, or visa versa, but this film has an obvious message where the two scenarios meld together. This, in my opinion, is a much better film for any possible healing that can come from a film like this, whereas some other similar films seemingly perpetuate the racial tension. Now, is this film without issues. Not at all. There were several places where certain events couldn't or wouldn't have happened given a certain situation, and a bit of choppiness. Other than these few indifferences in script, this screenplay was riveting, gritty and conveyed a much needed racial message that films haven't attempted successfully in the past.
Crime dramas are a typical fare in the Hollywood community, but this film goes way beyond this. The racial tension in this country is spiraling, and if people saw more films like this, maybe, just maybe there may be a true discussion about the tension where we all can learn from it.
Out of 4 Stars: 3 Rated: R 108mins.
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