directory : Marcellus Cox
Writer : Marcellus Cox
Manufacturer : Marcellus Cox & Eric Quincy
With protagonist : Rashad Hunter, Stephen Cofield Jr., Ashley Parchment, David Chattam, Gayla Johnson, Samuel Whitehill, Dennis LA White, Charlz Williams, Blake Hezekiah
Genre : Drama
Execution time : 105 minutes
Briefing : A young sketch artist visits a well-known psychiatrist as his life begins to spiral out of control as years of physical and verbal abuse take their toll.
Mickey (Rashad Hunter) has always dreamed of being an artist. As a child, it was his teacher, Mr. Sweeney (Dennis LA White), who first recognized his talent. Throughout this feature, as Mickey grows into adolescence, we learn that Mickey’s dream is still being belittled by his father.
Randall Hardaway (David Chattam) crushes Mickey’s dream by saying that art is useless and that being an artist will not make it. We learn that Mickey’s father projects his failure to follow his dream and wants the same to happen to Mickey.
Miki confronts her father
What happens to Mickey often happens in real life. The closest person in your life is the one most likely to have doubts about you when a stranger can see your potential over you. How ironic that the family that is supposed to be our number one supporter becomes our number one hater. Gladly, Mickey realizes that he can no longer take the abuse from his father, he confronts his father and immediately leaves home to pursue his dream of becoming an artist.
When Mickey leaves home, he moves into a motel where he runs into his old teacher, Mr. Sweeney, who later gets him a job as an art director at a community center. While working there, Mickey meets Grace. As an audience, we can see that Mickey spends most of his life struggling and the black and white cinematography makes us focus on her even more. However, Mickey’s life slowly progresses after Grace (Ashley Parchment) enters his life. For the first time, Mickey does not live in a monochrome world, instead, his life becomes colorful. This particular scene is such a genius move to show the juxtaposition of Mickey’s life before Grace is in the picture.
Mickey’s world turns colorful when he holds hands with Grace for the first time
Not long after Mickey gets a job at the community center, Mickey signs a contract with a newspaper in Los Angeles and publishes some of his work. His little joy turns to violent rage when he learns that the publisher is stealing his work. Seeing that Mikey is not well, Grace convinces him to see a psychiatrist.
As its premise, the story takes place when Mickey is in his therapy session with Dr. Cameron Harden (Stephen Cofield Jr.). We can see how the director uses these therapy session scenes to allow the plot to flow naturally as Mickey recounts his life story to his therapist. The first thing Mickey discusses with Dr. Harden is how hard his life is to the point where he dreams of ending it every day. Upon hearing his story, Dr. Harden assures Mick that he will help him and it’s good to open up about everything.
Mickey’s first therapy session with Dr. Cameron Harden
However, it becomes clear as Mickey tells his story to the therapist that his life has continued to deteriorate, which has led him to start drinking. Unfortunately, because of his background, Mickey’s only way to deal with problems is through violence, and not even Grace could stop him. Mickey is so obsessed with those who
it hurt him that he was blind to others who really cared and made an effort to help him. Here we are Low Know that Mickey has entered his “anti-hero” arc and things aren’t going to get any better for him.
Marcellus Cox, the writer and director of this film, does a pretty good job of showing how trauma and abuse affects someone’s life, even after the person is now living far away and has no contact with their abuser. Cox writes complex characters that have such a “thick” layer to reveal.
With their amazing cast, this movie takes the whole story to another level. Rashad Hunter gives a top-notch performance portraying a tragic young sketch artist who wants nothing more than to be successful at his job. With his talent, he can slowly build his life in a better direction only for it to be shattered when he remembers the traumatic experience caused by his father.
We can probably all agree that Randall is the villain of this story. David Chattam successfully turns Randall into the most hated character by giving such a great antagonistic performance. He blames his son for making him fail to pursue his dream as a professional footballer. The grudges he held for years on an innocent child have turned him into a selfish person. He abuses his child both verbally and physically and misdirects his anger. He really has no redeeming qualities, he’s just unforgivable.
Through Mickey Hardaway, Cox wanted to address and present the audience with what happens when you persevere in one’s dreams and the consequences that come along with those actions that affect everyone around them. Cox also wanted to tell a story about dreamers who have something to offer the world beyond the typical 9-5ers who live average everyday lives and the people who keep disbelieving in them and taking the spirit out of them. . PRocess
Once again, Cox has successfully created a story where we can learn that the trajectory of our lives can be changed as we try to define who we are by following our dreams. This movie helps us understand that trauma affects us until we are old enough to realize how horrible our childhood was. Therapy helps, but it won’t make your problems suddenly go away in one session.
