OMG. 👐🏾 Whoa. 🤔 Wow. 😍 What I’ve wanted from ANY production team since I was a kid. 🤜🏾🤛🏾💯
I’m like, at a loss for words. This movie was the BOMB. I didn’t know the backstory behind it, the indie short films, the goal of $200k, brothers grinding out a dream… I’m not going to get into it all either but it’s definitely an interesting read. It gives the film a sense of real sincerity or my favorite word, authenticity. You can feel the love, pride, passion in this production. The actors ALL fit their characters, law enforcement, criminals, addicts, scrubs, good, sick, tormented, it’s all here and more importantly, it’s all authentic.
Let me get to the premise, plot, purpose of this film. In the MAIN attraction, a man is hustling to get the money for his mother’s chemotherapy. (THAT is a helluva attraction. *duck face* Behind that, the father figure died waaaay earlier doing criminal activities to support the young, struggling family so of course, money is a huuuuuge issue throughout the movie. Who doesn’t like a story about a man defending his sick mom? Against all odds BUT I’m #sickAF so it really hit home for me. The setting is pretty much the same as NOW. I don’t like movies that get too far into the “future” or “past” because of the settings and backdrops. Code 8 kept it close to reality which was another good thing about it. Third element of the plot is the freaking SUPERPOWERS. It was fly how superpowers are critical to the plot (Having powers is normal but people must register themselves and face all the “racism/prejudice/fear/oppression/shit black people face in America everyday“) yet the powers don’t take over the scenes or storyline. Instead, powers play second fiddle to everything else, the plot twists, character development and sick mother.
If asked, there were three actors that excelled. EVERYONE was good but Kari Matchett was nice with the “strong mother facing terminal illness” role. At first, I didn’t find her believable but she takes off. Aaron Abrams? “Racist cop”? Yup, I’ve met officers just like him. They had bad intentions and it was all over their face, body language and exhumed with every word spoken. 😨 Greg Bryk was on it as Marcus. His episodes, twitches and itches were reminiscent of several high profile “gangsters”.
The ultimate compliment I can give is that after the 1hr and 40min, I wanted MORE. The film feeds you development of several characters, pieces of the story but leaves even more hanging. Shhhhhhhhooooooooot, I want a entire series of hour long episides!
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