Review: Brooklyn is under attack in empty action spectacle ‘Bushwick’
The urban action movie “Bushwick,” filmed to look mostly like one long take, is 90 minutes of real time that feels like five minutes of story and eighty-five minutes of “Why am I following these people and their every walking/running step?”
When college student Lucy (Brittany Snow), on her way home to the titular Brooklyn neighborhood, emerges from the Church Street subway station, she encounters a full-on street war complete with helicopters, explosions and black-clad paramilitary figures shooting civilians. Escaping certain death, she stumbles into the home of janitor and ex-Marine Stupe (Dave Bautista), who reluctantly takes her along as they search for family and seek answers about this mysterious hostile takeover.
Realistically depicting full-scale domestic terrorism is one thing, but directors Cary Murnion and Jonathan Milott seem unaware of how their long-take gimmick — the cuts are easily determined — destroys logic, emboldens the use of stereotypes, and kills suspense.
Bautista’s gruff, stolid character has a certain rugged authenticity, but it’s a head-scratcher in this day and age that a movie about what turns out to be a race war invasion on a multi-ethnic enclave is told through the eyes of a white protagonist. The end of civilization has been yawn-worthy for a while now in expensive blockbusters, so it’s dispiriting when plucky indie filmmakers with digital toys want their shot at empty spectacle, too.
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‘Bushwick’
Running time: 1 hour, 33 minutes
Not rated
Playing: Laemmle Monica Film Center, Santa Monica; AMC Dine-In Sunset 5, West Hollywood
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