Bushwick (2017)

What was the point of this? Between the very breathy performances of Dave Bautista (of which I understood a third of) and the worth-for-nothing ending, I want to understand who this story was for, what the end goal was. It felt like I was watching the action fantasy of a middle schooler into FPS games, or two grown men into D&D whose decision making is bound to the roll of a die. Considering the time of a release, the whole violent southern libertarian insurgence indiscriminately killing working class people of various backgrounds is quite a choice, isn't it? A social imaginary that, much like its villains, lacks creativity and only works to appease the thirst for revolutionary fantasies of disenfranchised and unorganized folks who only find or comprehend the importance of a resistant unity in tragedy already passed. Only highlights of _Bushwick_ were Brittany Snow and the choices in cinematography, even if the movement was awkward in certain angles and lost its novelty by the third close up shot going up a staircase.

Fantastic watch, will watch again, and do recommend. This one really flew under the radar, and I almost skipped it until I saw Brittany Snow, and had I know Dave Batista was also involved, I would have sought this out. Let me get this out of the way: the premise is a succession of the southern united states from the Union with an initial strike against a civil target. This is what "The South will rise again" means, this is what everyone flying the Confederate Battle Flag is signifying when they display the symbol of a terrorist organization. That said, this is an amazingly shot depiction of a horrible attack on civilians. The follow camera style gives you all the feeling of "found footage" (unfortunately there is a little shaking cam in action), without all the overhead and mislead about where the camera is, someone has to hold it, and "who edited this together". It is really immersive, and the audience learns about the situation (quickly, I might add) right alongside the characters. The story hardly wastes any time throwing us into chaos and survival. The best part is that Brittany Snow is just a college girl, smart and capable, but not combat ready and not that great of a survivalist. We get Dave Batista playing the stereotypical "Rock Role" of being former military, but instead of being a witty, smoldering pretty boy, they layered on substance to his character, and let him be gun ready. There are good twists, not a lot of complex multi-threading (at least for a city at war), all good action, and a ton of immersive realism. The biggest problems with this movie are the most realistic ones: in the times of a domestic war, there are going to be 4 sides: invaders, defenders, abstainers, and criminals: people that are just going to take the opportunity to do whatever and hurt whomever they want before someone kills them. Honestly, the more I think about it, the better this movie seems. I'd probably expand the ending though, in the very least there should have been an epilogue. At it stands, the movie just sort of ends, but it is possibly by design.

_Bushwick's_ reach exceeds its grasp, but considering that over-ambition is just one of the myriad of things working against it, it's amazing that _Bushwick_ is even as good as it is. _Final rating:★★½ - Had a lot that appealed to me, didn’t quite work as a whole._