Mickey Hardaway is a film every mental health practitioner should see, heck the whole world should see as Mickey Hardaway shows exactly how our mental health system fails us.
Shot entirely in black and white the only color we get is when Mickey meets Grace as we see Grace is the only color, and brightness in his painful black-and-white life. Cox does a phenomenal job in his directorial debut. I applaud him so much and can relate deeply to this film. Much of it brought tears to my eye as I saw Mickey and Grace so much my husband and me. Cox presents a beautiful piece that is flawless in my opinion, and the cast is stellar. Every shot has a meaning and every cast member commands each scene they are in. David Chattam gives a vicious performance as Randall Hardaway aka Mickey's dad, and he delivers the cruelest line ever delivered in a film that I have ever heard.
Rashad Hunter as Mickey though is the breakout star. He portrays Mickey with a realistic vulnerability that you can not help but feel even maybe relate to. I like how Cox cuts Mickey slip into instability in an almost uneventful way till it's too late, which, is kind of true to life. When a person goes off the deep end no one ever sees it coming. It is usually after the fact the signs are seen.
Mickey Hardaway is currently out on the film festival circuit and should be winning tons of awards in my book.
A great indie art house piece my rating is 10/10.
