A Lot of Nothing

Mo McRae's directorial debut "A Lot of Nothing" tackles a sensitive and relevant topic - police killings of unarmed victims in the Black community. The film follows James and Vanessa, a wealthy Black couple, who perform their own twisted citizen's arrest after learning that their white neighbor and cop killed a kid. The film is audacious and creative in its cinematography and musical score. However, it falls short in its writing, as the characters are poorly developed and serve as mere soundboards for the film's proposed intelligence. The film's themes are not explored with meaningful depth, and the big reveal leaves the film's stance on race and social capital muddled. Despite its weaknesses, McRae shows promise in his direction and artistic capabilities.

The title says it all this film is a lot of nothing not alot happens.

James and Vanessa are ostensibly the perfect married couple; beautiful, successful, and smart. Their lives spiral out of control when they decide to seek justice against a neighbor they saw commit a crime on the evening news

in todays socioty no one wants to get involved with there neighbours and you certaintly would not be kidnapping a police officer who happens to appears on the news.

Some reviewer seems to think this tackles police killings of unarmed victims in the black community umm no not really this relates in no way to it why do you think this because all the actors are black except one the police officer ??

Its a movie that made me think seriously to sue the responsible people of making this movie happen for wasting my worthless time, im sad and disgusted by how the movie was made, they tried everything and they failed at literally all of them. The story telling was mushed, scattered and randomised, its lile inwas watching clips of a regular movie. And dont even think of a proper plot in it. If i hired 3 Mexican construction workers, they would've done a better job ay writing a better movie. Im giving it 2 just cuz the beginning of the movie was promising, but then everything spiralled, downward. It hit rock-bottom and kept on going down. Some lies that my alcoholic friend tells me are more interesting than this movie. I just wish that never watched it, i want my time back.

This was a heaping pile of stereotypical nonsense that promotes hate and prejudice.

The movie pretends to portray sophistication and refined class, but devolves to socioeconomic emotional ignorance, driven by the writers bias and bigoted viewpoint.

Watching this movie was just a painful journey of nothingness, really a lot of nothing!

They would have been best suited to portray the wife as bipolar off her meds or some other thing to justify the irrational illogical behavior, but the writing pushed a terrible agenda.

The irony is that the fact the main house is like a mansion, and the next door neighbors house is a shack complete with half eaten food on plates laying around, beer bottles strewn about, late notices lying all around, a laptop open and queued to play porn, and a smoke detector that needed a battery.

Again it just added to the far-fetched fantasy of ridiculousness this movie is.

Steer clear of this hate provoking garbage!

A Lot Of Nothing begins with a shot. Vanessa watches the news. Her anger erupts while her husband, James, weary of the world's temperament, and perhaps with his wife's as well, seeks to deflect. But Vanessa wants - demands - that this time something has to be done. Will a Facebook post heavy with MLK quotes settle the matter? Or should an act of violence beget a violent reciprocation?

The first 17 minutes presents a single-shot, two-man performance about confronting, channeling, and ultimately grounding that rage. The remainder of the run time runs through a series of more complicated actions, most of which are heavy with cinematic posturing. However, the entire play hits with modern-day truths that are equally complex.

Written and directed by Mo McRae, A Lot of Nothing shows that James and Vanessa are not entirely wrong. Yet, neither are they completely right. James enjoys his position of power and can masterfully either feign ignorance or fume in silence. Vanessa is all righteous fury until her passions move too quickly and too far out in a place beyond where James' smooth-talking counseling can reach. Brian, the cop, hits all the right cliches, until he doesn't. The movie follows similarly.

Vanessa takes matters into her own hands and confronts Brian. Tensions, of course, escalate. As do actions. Maybe a little too quickly. Perhaps even unbelievably.

A Lot of Nothing is a hard drama with comedic-level misunderstandings about the racial divides and general mistrust that regrettably continue to exist. Mo McRae's movie starts the conversation, asks critical questions, but cannot seem to come up with a satisfying end note.