Sleight-ly Amusing

Hey folks,

The Big Boss here to give you a review on a film I was recently able to take in this past weekend.

The film I’m talking about is Sleight, directed by J.D. Dillard, and stars Jacob Latimore, Seychelle Gabriel, Dulé Hill. The film centers around street magician “Bo”(Latimore), who takes to drug dealing to provide for his sister and himself after losing both parents. His desire to get out sooner rather than later puts him in a situation where he’ll need to use his wits and his skills as a magician to protect his family.

Now, the way Sleight was advertised, it looked like we were getting an independent hero film along the lines of something like Chronicle. The stakes get increasingly high and forge a gritty new hero that will continue to use his abilities to operate in his world. The film does a good job of setting up this gritty world of gray, but, in my opinion, never really gives itself the opportunity to take off.

There is such a thing as being so grounded you never take off.

There are the necessary trails for our protagonist to go through to test his mettle and also the reality of shades of gray that must be illustrated to showcase a fallible human with extraordinary gifts, but the payoff is anticlimactic at best and doesn’t deliver what it’s been building up to for the most part. I found myself in the middle of all this build up, looking for something more to happen.

That being said, what the story lacked for me the actors made up for. Jacob Latimore does an exemplary job as Bo. I’ve really been liking this guy’s resume of work and I’m definitely looking forward to what he releases in the future. Dule Hill was interesting in the role of Angelo. It was hard for me to adjust to Gus (Psych) being a drug kingpin, but he does an admirable job of it. There are moments where I feel though that I can’t take his character seriously, but this is, indeed, a different kind of drug dealer. Storm Reid, who plays Bo’s little sister, Tina, is also a delight. There’s not much required of her in this film, but her and Bo’s relationship is the light in the dark of the tone of the film and you understand how important she is to Bo.

Overall, the movie definitely deserves a look, but I wouldn’t pay the money for a ticket on this one. Actors aside, a movie that doesn’t deliver story makes it hard to leave the theater satisfied, and this one didn’t make me feel like it was complete enough for a ticket buy. I’m sure it’ll be on Netflix once it’s theater run is complete. I’d give it a look on there.

That’s all from me today folks, I’ll have some other movies coming up for you later this week. Until then, later!