In
New York City, Manhattan does all the work and Staten Island and Queens pay all
the property taxes, but Brooklyn always thinks it’s all about them. This time
they are right. Red Dawn is about to
break out amid the partially gentrified neighborhood in Cary Murnion &
Jonathan Milott’s Bushwick, which
screened during the 2017 Sundance Film Festival.
Lucy
and her boyfriend have ventured into Brooklyn for dinner at her grandmother’s
apartment, but you don’t need to know his name, because he ain’t gonna make it
very far. While they were in the subway, urban warfare broke out on the streets
of Bushwick, but this time it is particularly bad. Suddenly single, Lucy makes
a wrong turn into potential rape and murder, but fortunately Stupe the building
super is there to save her. Right, he’s a super like Casey Ryback is cook.
Stupe
is indeed Marine Corps trained, so he reluctantly agrees to help get Lucy to
Grandma’s, before dashing off to Hoboken to check on his wife and son. However,
the level of tactical coordination and armaments exhibited by the assailants
makes him suspect this is no ordinary day of Brooklyn rioting. After a little “enhanced
interrogation,” (remember, that never works, right?), Stupe discovers the
truth: a coalition of Southern and border states has invaded Bushwick hoping to
force the president to approve their succession demands (of course, that would
be Pres. Trump, but whatever).
The
first act of Bushwick is actually not
bad, notwithstanding the Rope-like
faux-single-take gimmick. Dave Bautista Dave Bautista has a big, credible
action movie presence and the fact that he is not a superman, but a mortal who
is injured quite early in the going could have really distinguished Bushwick. Unfortunately, the film just
craters once it elevates ideology over action. Of course, the idea of holding
Bushwick hostage is just ridiculous. Frankly, most New Yorkers would say: “that’s
all very well, but couldn’t you destroy Williamsburg instead? Or maybe
Greenpoint?”
It
probably should come as no surprise the second half of Bushwick crashes and burns. Milott & Murnion’s last Sundance
selection, Cooties was recut before
its eventual theatrical release. Brittany Snow is inoffensive as Lucy, but her
hippy-stoner sister Belinda (played by Angelic Zambrana) is like fingernails on
the blackboard.
