A Lot Of Nothing Review: Drama Starts Out Strong But Can't Keep Up Momentum [SXSW]
Directed by Mo McRae from a screenplay he co-wrote with Sarah Kelly Kaplan, A Lot of Nothing has a thoroughly fascinating conceit and it’s willing to go to great lengths to insightfully delve into the various plot threads it brings up. For a while, the film is engaging, ramping up the tension by putting characters in situations that drive their actions and emotions throughout. McRae provides a layered debut, but the film can’t maintain its momentum, spiraling in the final act as it scurries to introduce new information.
A Lot of Nothing opens with wealthy Black couple James (Y’lan Noel) and his wife Vanessa (Cleopatra Coleman) as they’re watching a news report about an officer killing a teenager. Vanessa is angry that something like this has happened again and is at a loss regarding what to do in such a situation. She no longer wants to sit on the sidelines doing nothing, especially when she and James discover the cop in question, Brian (Justin Hartley), lives right next door to them. She and James play off of each other’s emotions, but they ultimately go back to their lives the next day, where they are faced with microaggressions and racist comments like, “You’re one of the good ones.” When Vanessa decides to confront Brian, she and James enter into a situation that grows more complicated by the minute.
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McRae walks a tightrope in a bid to explore race, class, and police killings. There are a number of things that work here — James and Vanessa’s impassioned argument about what they can do when they discover Officer Brian lives right next door, their push-pull dynamic when things escalate the next day, and the initial and awkward
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