Movie Review - Kin (2018)

A part of me appreciates this film because it gives us what we rarely get in wide-release films. It gives us a young black person as the lead character. It's worth noting because up until a couple of years ago, a young black person as the lead was something that hardly ever happened, especially in a film that cost more than $20 million, which is usually the benchmark between independent and studio projects. Even if you disregard budget, young black persons or young persons of color in the lead is a rarity. In films that are about young adults, teenagers or children, there will be a token black person or person of color in the cast. This year though marks a change that hopefully is a tide or a trend that will continue in the future. In 2015, #OscarsSoWhite pointed out the racial disparity in Hollywood movies, which did have a definite effect on the industry. Three years later, we are possibly seeing the postive effect on the big screen.

2018 saw a definite increase of movies with young black people in the lead. Not all of them have been as young as the one here. Not all of them have gotten the best reviews or box office receipts. Maybe, this is a year that just happens to be an uptick of movies about young black people and perhaps next year that uptick will go back down and not up, but for this year, it's good to have and possibly revel in that uptick, as well as celebrate it. Depending on how you count it, there are about 20 films this year with young black people as the lead. There are more adult titles like BlacKkKlansman by Spike Lee and Sorry to Bother You by Boots Riley. There's the big action flicks like Black Panther and Pacific Rim: Uprising. One might also include the blockbuster Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom because Justice Smith, though not the lead, does have a significant role.

I would include titles like Proud Mary, Saturday Church, The Cloverfield Paradox, Gringo, A Wrinkle in Time, Breaking In, Hearts Beat Loud, Superfly, The Darkest Minds, Night Comes On, The Hate U Give, Overlord, Creed 2 and the future release of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.

If you watch enough of those movies and others, you'll notice similarities and patterns. Some of those patterns, which are present here, are relatives like parent-child or siblings protecting each other from danger. Other patterns include family members going on road trips, but also those family members dealing with fractures or things that can divide them. There's also a look at the violence inside and outside the black community. Other than the science-fiction elements in some of them, there's also an exploration of the criminal elements within and around the black community.

I would also compare this to two other films that came out in previous years. The first is Sleight (2017). In a lot of ways, this film is a figurative remake of that 2017 film, as it is a literal remake of the short film Bag Man (2014), written and directed by Jonathan Baker and Josh Baker. The Baker brothers directed this literal remake too as their feature debut. In Sleight, however, a guy whose parents are dead needs money. He gets involved with criminals and ends up owing them tens of thousands of dollars. The leader of the criminals threatens to kill him and his sibling, so the guy uses a powerful, new weapon to fight them. This film is essentially the same as that.

Myles Truitt (Black Lightning and Queen Sugar) stars as Elijah Solinski or Eli, a 14-year-old living in Detroit. He gets suspended from school due to fist fighting. He rides his bike to abandoned buildings where he pulls wiring and other stuff to sell to scrapyards. He's black, but his adopted father is white and a contractor.

Jack Reynor (Sing Street and Transformers: Age of Extinction) co-stars as Jimmy Solinski, a twenty something ex-convict who was just released from prison after 6 years. Jimmy is the one who needs money after getting involved with criminals. The criminals threaten to kill him and his family if Jimmy doesn't pay money that he's owed, specifically $60,000. In Sleight, the guy who owes the money is the one who gets the powerful weapon. Here, Jimmy doesn't get the weapon. His brother Eli gets the powerful weapon and is the only one of certain people who can use it as in District 9.

Unlike Sleight, this movie takes too much time to set things up and have the characters start using the special weapon, which for many is the selling point for both films. Here, the characters don't use the special weapon enough. It's not that the movie needed to use it in battle or fight scenes, but there's no exploration or questioning of it. Eli doesn't even reveal to Jimmy that he has the weapon until more than half-through the film, which is a lot of time wasted.

Midnight Special (2016) would be the second film to which I would make comparisons. That Jeff Nichols' film is a road trip movie involving a boy who is different somehow. That difference may be alien related. Eli's weapon is hinted to be from outer space or somewhere. Nichols' film is also lacking in action like this one, but its tone was meant to be more muted than this.

The Baker brothers have invoked comparisons to The Terminator (1984) as well. There are obvious scenes that are in homage to James Cameron's action blockbuster. The premise is also a bit of a homage, at least in appearance. Like The Terminator, a character is chased across the country by someone trying to kill that character. Here, Jimmy goes on the run with Eli across the country because the criminal to whom Jimmy owes money wants to kill them. That criminal is named Taylor, played by James Franco (The Disaster Artist and 127 Hours).

Unfortunately, screenwriter Daniel Casey overwrites Taylor and makes his villainy too cartoonish. Given that Eli is watching Japanese anime on television and that kind of cartoon is an obvious inspiration for the Baker brothers, they don't lean into that cartoon nature enough to make Taylor's actions feel balanced or in-line with the rest of the film. He's just a ridiculously evil guy. Considering where this film goes, he's more ridiculous than even the aliens that eventually we meet. Sadly, the movie has us meet these aliens too late for the audience to engage with them or care about them either.

Rated PG-13 for gun violence, suggestive material, language and drinking.
Running Time: 1 hr. and 42 mins.

Available on DVD and VOD.