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NAKED SINGULARITY
Director: Chase Palmer Cast: John Boyega, Olivia Cooke, Bill Skarsgård, Ed Skrein, Tim Blake Nelson, Linda Lavin, Robert Christopher Riley MPAA
Rating: Running Time: 1:33 Release Date: 8/6/21 (limited); 8/13/21 (wider) |
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Review by Mark Dujsik | August 5, 2021 Naked Singularity begins with a biting, devastating critique of the justice system, especially as it's seen through the eyes and experiences of a young public defender. It's likely that Casi (John Boyega) once truly believed in the mission of providing anyone and everyone a proper criminal defense. He still does, but the reality of the judicial process certainly makes it seem as if the system itself doesn't believe that ideal. Making his feature debut, co-writer/director Chase Palmer understands and portrays these processes, not as some romantic idea that truth and justice will inevitably out when an idealistic and skilled attorney stands in a courtroom, but as a soul-numbing grind. Casi goes from client to client. He has an assortment of limitations and obstacles—language barriers (and cops who don't care about finding a translator), too many clients, not enough time, prosecutors making seemingly attractive deals to keep their numbers square, judges who just want the dealings of the court to keep moving. There's no room for idealism. There's no patience for whatever rhetorical skills or legal knowledge Casi might possess. Get defendants into the court, and get them out of the room as hastily as possible—hopefully, in the minds of the judge and prosecutor who really look in charge, with a plea bargain to end the matter right then and there or, barring that, with a sizeable enough bail that the time in prison might make the person consider taking the plea the next time he or she is in court. Right at the top, Palmer and David Matthews' screenplay (based on Sergio De La Pava's novel A Naked Singularity) throws all of this information and all of these troubles at us, and they do so in such a burst of details and statistics that the whole damn thing feels overwhelming, helpless, and hopeless. That's how Casi feels every day, waking up after little sleep and going right back into the grind of visiting clients, dealing with impatient prosecutors, and trying to rationalize with judges who seem as if they'd rather be anywhere but where they are now. It's little wonder that he starts to suspect the entire world might be on the brink of some hidden disaster. To say that this movie shows promise at the start is an understatement. The introductory scenes here offer a scathing, authentic, and appropriately cynical condemnation of what's wrong with the justice system, bolstered by a Boyega performance that's equal parts charming, optimistic, weary, and defeated. One wonders and hopes for where this tale will head. As it becomes clear that the filmmakers have any entirely different plot and far more confused ambitions in mind, though, one just starts wondering where everything went wrong and hoping that the movie will make some kind of sense or some salient point. What we actually get here—a heist story with a half-hearted, unconvincing science-fiction twist—isn't necessarily bad or uninteresting, but it definitely isn't the story, the method, or the point that displayed such promise. Pushed to take on another client by fellow and overtly cynical public defender Dane (Bill Skarsgård), Casi finds himself caught up in the middle of a forthcoming drug deal. The client is Lea (Olivia Cooke), whom Casi represented previously and helped to the best of his ability, and while at her job at an impound lot, she's confronted by Craig (Ed Skrein), with whom she later hooks up via an online dating app. Craig wants a car from the lot. The car is filled with hidden heroin, and Lea is back in the system because Craig coerced her to obtain a sample of it. Casi arranges a deal with the cops to keep Lea out of court, but he learns that she's lying about the date of the deal. Dane comes up with another plan: He and Casi could steal the tens of millions in cash from the deal, and no one would be the wiser. All of this becomes a bit familiar, a bit more convoluted, and further distanced from the realm of the world Palmer established so well. Before and even while in the middle of the heist, Casi and Dane do have a few ethical and philosophical debates—with a few too-cutesy pop-culture references—about the crime, because Casi is hesitant, and even the nature of reality, because Casi is becoming convinced that some astronomical event involving a black hole is on the horizon (Tim Blake Nelson plays Casi's neighbor, who offers some basic science and an excuse for the story to head in that direction). They come across as hollow as the mechanics of the plot—double-crosses, close calls, multiple groups of villains working their own agendas, a climactic eruption of action that both feels out of character and allows the whole mess to resolve in a tidy fashion. Palmer and Matthews do ultimately double-back to the initial purpose and point of Naked Singularity, but by then, it means little. Too much of this story feels like a detour in the wrong direction and heading nowhere of any real significance. Copyright © 2021 by Mark Dujsik. All rights reserved. |
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language throughout, some violence, sexual references and drug use)
