NO SLEEP IN BROOKLYN
Bushwick a timely, fast-paced adventure of what might happen in another U.S. civil war
Sometimes, a movie manages a perfect feat of historical synchronicity. Just as conversation in the U.S. is turning to whether the president is stoking the flames of a second civil war comes a film, shot in 2016, that imagines one already taking place. It’s a flawed story, but its timing couldn’t be better.
Brittany Snow (Pitch Perfect) stars as Lucy, who in the opening scene is just getting off the subway in the Brooklyn, N.Y., region that is also the title of the film. It’s not known as a rough neighbourhood, so when she sees one citizen on fire and then loses her boyfriend in some kind of ice-cream truck explosion, she knows something is up.
For the next 90 minutes, we follow Lucy more or less in real time. Co-directors Cary Murnion and Jonathan Milott favour extremely long takes, which might be more effective if there weren’t some obvious cheats, as when the camera pans past something dark, allowing a cut to take place. The technique feels more like a dare than a style choice.
Lucy soon runs into Stupe (Guardians of the Galaxy’s Dave Bautista), an ex-Marine and medic turned janitor. (“Tired of watching people die,” he says of his career change, not wasting any breath.)
He saves her from some of the black-clad soldiers who are shooting up the streets, and the two of them join forces, hoping to survive.
They eventually find Lucy’s sister, who’s been sleeping through the carnage under the belief that it was just her neighbours playing Call of Duty. And they interrogate one of the invaders, who helpfully explains that Texas has seceded from the Union and hopes to force Congress to ratify the change by holding New York hostage.
But Texas clearly didn’t count on New Yorkers putting up much of a fight. Also, the grunt is frustratingly vague on the racial component of this new war, which might have given the drama more teeth.
But Bushwick remains a fastpaced adventure, all the more so if you don’t give yourself time to ask too many questions. (Like how did this invasion happen so quickly? Did the troops use landing craft, or just come in by a combination of Uber and Amtrak? And did the notoriously liberal Austin form a fifth column inside secessionist Texas?)
The screenplay, by Nick Damici and Graham Reznick, isn’t too interested in such minutiae, instead relying on multiple instances of people shouting, “Go, go, go!” and one oddly surreal scene in which Hasidic Jews with machine guns square off against several Southern soldiers in an armoured vehicle.
And while the film finishes on an open-ended note, there’s a good chance the surviving characters will be tearing down the Leaving Brooklyn: Fuhgeddaboudit sign and replacing it with one that says: We warned you not to mess with us.