In indie action film Bushwick, a stark departure from director duo Jonathan Milott and Cary Murnion’s previous feature Cooties, Brittany Snow stars as Lucy, a 20-year-old student who has come back to her home in Brooklyn to visit her grandmother. Unbeknownst to her, the neighbourhood has fallen into chaos after an invasion from a Texan army. Lucy is soon rescued by war veteran Stupe (Dave Bautista) and she enlists his help to reach her grandmother, and later, to search for safety.
Milott and Murnion boldly choose to let the events play out in series of long takes – all at least five minutes in length. Undoubtedly, everyone loves a long take and visually, it’s exciting to see the camera weave through the streets of Bushwick, following the characters as they run, shoot, and hide. Despite this, it’s a stylistic gamble that doesn’t really pay off – it’s like if Birdman was an action movie, but not nearly as effective. The device works well in the first act in building tension and establishing the sheer scale of destruction that has occurred, but as the film progresses, it only slows the film to a screeching halt. Extremely long takes usually mean that we can see the action, but apparent budget constraints prevent us from seeing much of anything – save for the occasional explosion and the bloody aftermath. Unlike Birdman, the hidden cuts are also painfully obvious, suggesting that the task was too ambitious to begin with. With these long takes, the film attempts to create a thrilling, immersive experience – but it fails to follow through.
Despite the best efforts from Brittany Snow and Dave Bautista – both perfectly capable actors – you never feel particularly compelled to root for the characters beyond, “I guess I hope you don’t die?” All you know about Lucy is what’s established in the opening scene and Stupe’s backstory (veteran and medic) only feels like it’s being supplied for narrative convenience when Lucy gets injured or needs to fire a gun.
Underneath the style and action, the filmmakers also inject the story with subliminal political commentary – as if the film aims to serve as a cautionary tale about the state of America’s political climate. The commentary is certainly intriguing if you dig deeper – the idea that the biggest adversary to a southern rebellion is Bushwick, a melting pot of races and nationalities. However, this is all dumped into an expositional scene in which a captured enemy soldier explains why the attack is happening. There was potential to infuse the film with a deeper message that would certainly make the film more interesting – but by throwing this all away in one scene, the film fails to balance stylistic but mindless action with the deeper themes it hopes to convey. Bushwick has its moments of heightened tension and electrifying action, but it falters under the weight of its own ambition.
Rating: 4/10
What thing I have a problem with in this flick is the very beginning. Growing up in brooklyn Church Ave station was my stop and I lived there for 25 years. So how in the world do they exit in Kensington brooklyn and end up in Bushwick brooklyn. The two towns are more than an hour part from each other.