Sleight (2017) Review!!!

Synopsis – A young street magician (Jacob Latimore) is left to care for his little sister after their parents passing, and turns to illegal activities to keep a roof over their heads. When he gets in too deep, his sister is kidnapped, and he is forced to use his magic and brilliant mind to save her.

My Take – I am always on a look out for untapped indie films, and in the past few years, I have found many that have certainly impressed me, mostly coming from the Sundance Film Festival, hence I had the same hopes from this one. Opening to positive acclaim at last year’s event, this WWE production, yes, the same WWE that has catapulted names like Hulk Hogan, Dwayne The Rock Johnson, and John Cena to superstardom outside of the ring, entered my radar the moment BH Tilt, a subdivision of the hit making production house Blumhouse, picked it up for distribution. Promoted as a version of what happens when Houdini meets Tony Stark/Iron Man, this film seemed to carry so much potential, especially considering the talent onscreen and behind the camera. Viewed through a particular genre lens, debutant writer/director J.D. Dillard’s human-scaled story looks like a refreshing take on a superhero film. Small enough in scope and budget than usual big budgeted productions, the film bucks most of the major trends in cape-and-cowl fare: It’s self-contained, it goes easy on the special effects, and it stars a young black actor as the lead. If this is a superhero film, it’s a welcome deviation from formula, otherwise, it’s quite clear that it doesn’t resonate like it should. Seriously, I really wanted to like this film, but it’s hard to ignore how thin the whole film actually is. Sure, it has its entertaining moments, yet everything is so forgettable. Trying too hard to be a mashup of Chronicle, Iron Man, and Dope, its seems like director Dillard had a really hard time sustaining its tone or the direction to set the film on. Luckily, its star Jacob Latimore has enough charisma to at least keep you hooked on till the end.

The story follows Bo (Jacob Latimore), a street magician who a year after his mother’s passing, turned down a full engineering scholarship in order to take care of his little sister, Tina (Storm Reid), with the help of their neighbor Georgi (Sasheer Zamata). To put a steady roof over their heads, by day, he performs as a mind-bending street magician in Los Angeles, all thanks to the implanted electromagnet in his shoulder that wires into his arm and fingertips to enhance telekinesis and levitation routines for his magical illusion acts. However, at night, Bo works as a shifty, small-time drug dealer for the cartoonish drug mogul Angelo (Dulé Hill), in order to pocket sufficient earnings. Bo has been helping Angelo move his drugs for nearly a year now, longer than he wanted to, and now with his new love interest, Holly (Seychelle Gabriel), and sister growing, things are start to get dangerous. At first, Bo keeps it light by just selling to particular clients or at this club his friend Luna (Cameron Esposito) works at. However, as Angelo’s ambitions grow and another person tries to come onto his turf, Bo is forced to step up and be more than a dealer but get blood on his hands. Thus, really jumpstarting his needs to get the hell out of the neighborhood he is in and try to start over. However, his relationship with Angelo turns rancorous after Bo cuts products for his own profit. Angelo coerces Bo into shelling out a ridiculous amount of money within a short week otherwise he’ll put he and his sister’s life at stake. Realizing he must abolish the vicious mess he collapsed into, Bo decides to mete out punishment against his adversary and serve a deck of justice with his powerful allies: Magic and science. Director Dillard’s basic template here is the comic-book origin story: There’s the reluctant hero, the convenient love interest (who, to be fair, is superficially given her own arc, one vaguely involving the abuses of a mother we never see), the scheming villain, and the sci-fi-worthy (and silly-as-expected) explanation of the hero’s superpower. The film plays like a stew of plot points from other films. There’s the mystique of magic and Bo’s insane commitment to his craft ala The Prestige (2006). Throw in the drug deals gone bad, missing money and double crosses from Dope (2015). Add a dash of the self-destructive super powers of Chronicle (2012), bring it to a boil and you have this film. On a surface level, the blend of all those elements works pretty well, the film is almost entertaining thriller. If you’re scrolling through Netflix six months from now and come across it, you could do a lot worse. But my chief complaint remains that the film could have been so much more, which clearly was not possible thanks to its little too basic script. It’s adequate enough to tell the story but in places where it really needs to shine and be different it just falls flat.

Take for instance when Bo comforts Holly about her physically abusive mother. She later tells him that she’s willing to run away with him, therefore leaving her mother behind; “The other night you told me I don’t deserve this. I needed to hear that.” Has she seriously never heard that phrase before? “You don’t deserve this.” That was the magical phrase that made her realize what her mother was doing was wrong? Not to say the film has nothing out-of-the-ordinary going for it. While Bo is working on his magic tricks in his room (surprise, he has a Houdini poster) we see that Bo has made some homemade body modifications involving an electro magnet implanted in his shoulder running metal wires through his skin to his fingers in order to move metal objects seemingly by magic. I hesitate to even ask this but, exactly how possible is something like that? I’m no engineering major myself but that sounds like straight science-fiction in a story that is otherwise trying to be set in the gritty real world. In a lot of ways, the film entertains those of us fans of illusion and magic, those of us who’ve always wondered how on earth American illusionist, Criss Angel does what he does. The things that Bo can do will amaze you but there’s a twist to his ability which you’d have to watch the film for yourself to find out what that really is. However, the whole behind it is quite ridiculous. It would have been more palatable if they had left the mad science out of this film and just left him as a magician. Half the stuff he does is every day magic and the other half I’ve seen from either seen many other films. It’s a little like they couldn’t decide which way to go on the fact versus fantasy decision so made a preposterous compromise. It’s a total farce. They didn’t give him super powers so he could do impossible miraculous things outside the laws of physics, instead they give him bogus technology so he could do impossible miraculous things outside the laws of physics. We also meet characters who make decisions that range from random to illogical to laughable. The main issue with Holly is that she seems sort of written to quickly and easily get your sympathy. Cheaply, through showing she is abused, that is how Gabriel is able to get you to connect with her character and while she may not use it as a crutch, neither she or the character builds off, or past, that introduction. Making her just the cute girlfriend who quickly melds into Bo’s life because he is nice and she doesn’t have much of a better alternative. Not to mention, Angelo is supposed to be a formidable personality, but the stipulations he sets forth for Bo seem too farcical to be frightening and malicious, like dragooning Bo into dismembering a rival drug lord’s hand — which made me raise an eyebrow more than be in a state of shock. The obvious plot holes and otherwise pro-forma script leaves the film unconvincing as a drama, and director Dillard’s very sparsely meted out action beats don’t add up too much of a thriller either. So, the film tends to lean on its trendy, Soderbergh inspired visuals, all washed-out yellows and camera angles slightly off-axis with the characters’ eye lines. Coming to the performances, Jacob Latimore, an R&B crooner who’s transitioned into a Hollywood acting career, lends Bo an immense underdog likability. Focusing on his role in though, I feel like this film is almost like an audition tape for bigger and better things. He proves himself capable of being the leading man in terms of charisma, his ability to be a love interest, and also be believable when working with special effects. As the main antagonist, Dulé Hill, a fine actor, surprisingly comes out as unintentionally hilarious, making him a clear case of a miscast. Seychelle Gabriel looks gorgeous as always & plays her part well despite a poorly written role. Sasheer Zamata is alright. On the whole, ‘Sleight’ has a few entertaining values yet stumbles due to an unconvincing plot and character arc.