Mangrove - 2020
It's an awful bit of film criticism, in my opinion, to talk about the relative merits of one work of art in lieu of another. To say, in effect, "THIS is not that great because it's not more like THAT." It's kind of lazy, frankly, and it steamrolls the unique merits of each individual piece of cinema, flattening its singular contours into one linear line of dialogue. We should try to the best of our ability to analyze and parse each piece on its own terms and against no other rules/criteria but the world it sets up on its own.
Well, now that I've gotten rather loquacious in my sermonizing on methodology, allow me to break my own ethical code completely. #Hypocrite. See, there were two sort of "conventional courtroom dramas" released in 2020, and I just can't help myself in comparing them! They do have similarities, after all. They're both the work of major directors. They both focus in on a prominent real-life trial. Protests figure prominently in their narratives. Each contains a bevy of solid actors really locked in, some doing career best work. Each is riveting in places and politically charged, with cathartic emotional releases in their finales.
Let's see what else. Well, let me pause. In truth, we were soon getting to..."they each have buildings, and are made with cameras." I suppose what I'm trying to say is that they are not all that similar. And I think it is in their differences of mood and tone where the distinctions come most starkly into contrast. I attempted to argue in my write-up for The Trial of the Chicago 7 (I hope you guessed that this was the other courtroom drama referenced here) that the film pops and sizzles. It has a rat-a-tat rhythm in its dialogue, euphoric speech-giving, and powerful acting, and manages to deftly stay pretty airy while exploring such a heavily themed proceeding. Indeed, this is one of the chief gifts of Sorkin. The drink goes down so smoothly you forget to dissect what's in the concoction.
Mangrove, by contrast, is another animal entirely. It is a film on a holy mission, a crusade against systemic racism that never pulls its punches. These aren't jabs; they're haymakers. As I was watching Mangrove, as I'm often wont to do, I was looking for one word or phrase which most succinctly summed up the picture. I landed on "coiled rage." Back a cobra into a corner and attempt to squelch its every exit and path to freedom and watch what that animal will do. Mangrove is like that, constructed at the sacred intersection of righteous anger and human suffering born of generational subjugation. This film is SO much more than just a courtroom drama. It is an education.
The story is also a yarn about a restaurant in London where West Indian people can come to eat cuisine they sorely miss from back home. Where they can catch up and be social, chewing the cud on everything from card-playing debts to the shared experiences of racism at the hands of the Metropolitan Police. A force which has so recently been invading their houses and places of business without warrants, and stopping and searching blacks on the street without cause.
The Mangrove Restaurant soon becomes much more than a hangout. It steadily morphs into a center for organizing and planning. Black Panthers join its midst. Meetings are held in a clandestine way under the watchful eye of PC Pulley (who is, contrary to Branagh in Tenet, the ACTUAL best Bond villain of 2020). Out of these educational impromptus and communal sharing comes a resolve to stand in opposition, to march the street protesting the actions of the Metro Police. The police join the fray, and the Trial of the Mangrove 9 ensues.
As I've said, this is a tale of the people. Fortunately for us, these "people" also happen to be some of the finest actors assembled in one place in a long, long time. Malachi Kirby is fantastic as the man who represents himself and speaks most directly to the judge and jury. If he's the Lt. Daniel Kaffee of Mangrove, he does the genre (and Mr. Cruise) proud. Rochenda Sandall is equally effective as a behind-the-scenes character who vividly portrays both the emotional weight of the proceedings and the group's firm resolve. But, for my money (and in 2020, that's simply the cost of Amazon Prime), it's Letitia Wright and Shaun Parkes who jump off the screen. The two are like supernovas. Letitia the passionate, resourceful Black Panther (yes, her role here and in that Marvel movie of the same name should not be lost on us) who fights for herself and takes on all comers. It's her strength of conviction which practically wills the whole group forward.
Then there is Shaun Parkes, playing Frank Crichlow, the owner of the Mangrove Restaurant. Crichlow is a man who has been beaten down and bludgeoned by the system for so long he has hardly the will to go on fighting. The very laws of inertia in the British police force and government seem to be working against him. McQueen trains his camera on these actors for long, uncomfortable takes. He does this most vividly of all with Parkes. In this way, Frank becomes an avatar for all of us. So, when at last the trial wraps and the verdicts are read, it is Frank's reactions we see. He is the center and ground of the whole picture.
So, at last I return to the top and my irresponsible game of compare and contrast. The question for me, I suppose, is which film is tonally superior. Perhaps a quote given in reference to The...Chicago 7 will be as effective a response as any: "When you're telling a story this gut-level visceral, this theme-packed, the drama has got to get a little gritty. The comedic lines and zingers actually start to cut across the poignant tragedy of the proceedings." Those words were written by none other than the man I see in the mirror everyday. To rephrase, I felt the glossiness of Sorkin's film begin to work against the weightiness of its themes. Do I conclude the same about Mangrove? In lieu of a formal reply, I ask you to watch for yourself and look into Crichlow's eyes in the finale. Spoilers aside, this was quite simply the most powerful bit of cinema I've yet seen this year.
FOF Rating - 5 out of 5
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