directed by Chris Morris
More ominously the FBI, often with the assistance of local police departments, set up certain people to be murdered, rather than stand trial on flimsy or non-existent charges. People who are engaged in political activity that the government or people who run the government don't like can frequently find themselves in serious trouble.
For at least the past five hundred years or so Europe has had greater political unity and military technology than the rest of the world, particularly Africa and the New World. And to put it mildly, armed with superior technology, Europeans didn't treat their fellow humans with kindness and decency. The distance between European technology and that employed by certain non-European nations has shrunk and even reversed in some areas but again a fair observer would correctly note that Africa and the African diaspora are (generally) still lagging behind. Why this is and what can or should be done about it is a book, not a blog post, and certainly not a movie review. But unless that's in your mind you won't be able to get some of the characters in this film.
There are many religiously minded Black people who believe in a past glorious period before white supremacy, want to take steps to minimize the impact of white supremacy in their current life, and look forward to taking future steps to eliminate racism in toto. Whether they be Hebrew Israelites, Muslims, Move Members, Five Percenters, or what have you, many of these groups are targeted by the federal government.
Moses Al Shabazz (Marchant Davis) wants to build a safe place for his family and for black people from the streets. Moses envisions a farm that will produce good clean organic food for the masses. Unfortunately Moses lives in urban Miami, in a place not conducive to farming, even on the microlevel he and his wife are attempting. Moses' magical thinking gets in the way of wise decisions. He thinks that he can stop the construction of new apartments by telepathically destroying the cranes. He practices every night. Moses eschews guns in favor of (toy) crossbows. Moses believes God spoke to him through a duck. Moses thinks that his airhorn will summon back the dinosaurs to fight for black people in their time of greatest need.
Moses is pretty clearly a few fries short of a happy meal. But he fiercely and unabashedly loves his wife and daughter. Sadly, the Al Shabazz family and their handful of followers are about to be evicted. The landlord doesn't want to be paid in eggs again; banks see no point in loaning money to someone who thinks double-entry accounting is the white man's tool.
Having watched a few of Moses' speeches on Facebook she thinks that Moses might be just the person to loop into committing a crime that will get her promoted, get commendations for her boss, and get budget increases for the local office. And if she has to use a pedophile informant to do this, then that is what she will do.
This kicks off a comedy that has its moments but isn't as funny as it thinks it is. I think the writers probably needed some greater familiarity with the culture that they're satirizing. They get the passive aggressive nature of the FBI bureaucracy down, from what I could tell but they didn't get the interpretation of the Hebrew Israelites right. Many of the other characters were jarring. It was as if the writers and director had certain points they wanted to make and didn't bother to build strong characters.
However Davis was very well cast. He does just as much with presence, eye movement and facial expressions as he does with his dialogue. Even though I thought this movie was a miss, Davis is someone to look out for in the future. His role was the only one which wasn't flat.
TRAILER
