‘The Man in My Basement’ Review: Corey Hawkins and Willem Dafoe Star in A Walter Mosley Adaptation That Compels But Doesn’T Convince

Heavy Hang themes Permeating Nadia Latif’s Adptation of Walter Mosley’s 2004 Novel. Unlike The Crime Fiction That Has Proven So Popular for The Author, The man in the BasementWhile Possessing Some Thriller-Ish Aspects, Is More A Book of Ideas. Too Many Ideas, Probably, Since the Fairly Simple Storylines Touch on Such Themes As Power Dynamics, Race Relations, Colonialism, Guilt, Redemption and More.

The Film, Co-Written by Mosley and Latif, The Latter Making Her Feature Directorial Debut, Faces The Nearly Impossible Task of Making All These Ideas Coher-and Only Part. But thanks to i Powerful atmospheres and Superb performances by its Two Leads Corey Hawkins and Willem Dafoe, The Film Should Appeal to Licots Looking Fortel. Release Before Streaming Later This Year On Hulu.

Set in the ’90s in a black neighborhood of the tony seaside Village of Sag Harbor, The Story Revolves AROUND CHARLES BLAKLY (HAWKINS) Petty Embezzlement. DRINKING HEAVILY, FINANCIALLY DESTITUTE, AND LIVING IN THE RUNDOWN HUSE HIS FAMILY HAS OWNED FOR GENERATIONS, HE SPEENS MOST OF HIS FREE TIME PLAYING Cards. (Gershwyn Eustache Jr.).

His life tails a Dramatic turn WHEN A Well-Dressed Stranger Knocks On His Door. The man introduces HimSelf as Anniston Bennett (Dafoe), Gives Charles His Business Card and Makes A Startling Offer. He Wants to Rent Charles’ Unfurnised Basement for 65 Days, Promising $ 65,000 in Cash, Delivered in Installments, As Payment.

Charles Initially Turns Him Away But, Faced with The Possible Loss of His Home Because of His Inability To Pay His MottGage, He Contacts Annistons and Access The Offer. Soon, Large Packages Are Being Delivered to the House. WHEN THE OBVIUSLY WELL-HeELED BUSINESSMANSMANSMANS UP TO BEGIN HIS STAY, HE SEMS UNRUFFLED by the Basement’s Dank Conditions.

And that’s whohn Things Get Really Strange. The Next Day, Charles Brings Anniston Breakfast, Only to Discover That He’s Locked HimSelf in a Large Metal Cage He’s Erected Overnight. Horrified at the optics of a black man keeping a white man Prisoner in his bacement, Charles nearly ends the arrangement but is finally personi person.

“Call it a spiritual journey,” Explans the Enigmatic Anniston to the Befuddle Charles, Adding That Heing To -Time To Do “Some Reading, THINKING, Maybe A Little Writing.

Meanwhile, Charles, Who Had Discovered Several African Masks While Pleance Out The Basement, Strikes Up A Friendsip with A Local Antique Dealer, Narciss Nanny), who is so convinCed of their historical Importance that she proposes that, Insthead of Selling Them, She Create a Small Museum Centering on them and other Artifacts in his home.

The Encounters Between Charles and the Mysterious Man Locked Up in His Basement, ALTERNATELY GENIAL AND TENSE AND EVENTALLY DISEPLY DISTURBING, FORM The CRUX OF THE FILM. Hawkins and Dafoe Play Off Each Other Superbly, The Power Dynamics Shifting as the Psychical UNRAVELING CHARLES BEGINS USING COVERCIVE METTHODS Self-Indual Imprisonment (None of Whoch Prove Very Convincing).

The Problem is that the Allegory-Laden Storyline Doesn’t Play Out Realistic, the Nor Does It Fully Satisfy on TheMatic Terms. Unlike, Say, Leave the World BehindWHICH SIMILARLY CONTAINED Weighty IDEAS IN ITS SUSPENSE-DRIVEN, APOCALYPTIC SERYLINE, The man in the basurement Proves Ploding in Its Story Dynamics. By the Time ItCludes with a lenguish quote from The Wretched of the EarthFritz Fanon’s Classic Psychological Study of the Dehumanizing Effects of Colonization, It Has Long Since Started to Feel Like A Theisis in Search of A Plot.

Nonetheless, The Film Proves at Least Somewhat Compelling, With Director Latif Providing Enough Tension and Chilling Visuals to Kep Viewers Engaged. Hawkins Draws US in Throughod, Unafraid to Make Charles’ Fragality Palpable. And Dafoe, An Actor Who’s Always Excelled at Playing Off-Kilter Figures, Keeps Us Guessing About The Soft-Spoken But Steel Anniston, Who Sems Intent On Paying Nota General.