Dollar Tree Cinema: Brian Banks

“Brian Banks” (2018)
Starring Aldis Hodge, Greg Kinnear, Sherri Shepherd, Morgan Freeman
Directed by Tom Shadyac
Written by Doug Atchison
Rated PG-13 for thematic content and related images, and for language

Some blogs and writers will mark the theatrical release of “Black Adam” with deep dives into the character's history or picks for the best stories in which he is featured. But where they zig, I choose to zag, by which I mean justify my purchase of a movie I hadn't heard of months ago as something other than hoarding.

Sure, the appearance of a football and Greg Kinnear on the box got my attention, but it was Aldis Hodge in the title role of this based-on-a-true-story film that convinced me to plunk down $1.25 at Dollar Tree for “Brian Banks.” Hodge is playing Hawkman in the latest installment of the DC Somewhat Connected Universe, and despite 81 acting credits on IMDb, I was unfamiliar with his work.*

So, does Hodge's performance as a rising football star wrongly convicted of rape demonstrate the skill and gravitas needed to play a reincarnated warrior who has been both an archaeologist and an alien policeman who dresses like a bird?

Sure. I suppose some folks** might argue it's even more difficult to believably play a man struggling through a waking nightmare that could (and did) happen in real life than engaging in CGI-assisted combat with the Rock. And some might even want to watch the former more than the latter.

I kid. There's nothing wrong with movies where people don't fly, or movies that don't have as much football as you initially think.

Football is just one of the things Banks lost when he pleaded guilty to rape after his attorney told him he would likely get probation. Instead, he was sentenced to six years in prison for a crime he did not commit. With the conviction preventing him from playing football, getting a decent job and even going on a date without getting a call from his parole officer, Banks appeals to the California Innocence Project, headed by Justin Brooks (Kinnear) to help him clear his name. The problem? He needs new evidence, not just pointing out the many, obvious flaws with the case against him.

The story is told in the present as Banks struggles to move on and clear his name and through flashbacks showing how he wound up incarcerated and what happened to him during that time.

He gets some guidance from a man whose voice initially sounded to me like Morgan Freeman. Then the camera revealed that it actually was Morgan Freeman playing the role of Jerome Johnson, who taught Banks the only thing he could control in life was his reaction to it. Freeman, who starred in Shadyac's “Bruce Almighty” and “Evan Almighty,”*** isn't listed in the credits or on the box, despite being the biggest star in the movie (no disrespect to Captain Amazing). I guess it's because he's only in it for a couple of scenes, but... I was going to make a joke about Judi Dench winning the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for “Shakespeare in Love” despite not being in it very long, but I'm probably the only one still bothered by that, and it's Judi Dench, so, come on, Evan, move on.

Anyway, Hodge palpably conveys the frustration and anguish Banks feels, which is good because the dialogue is not nearly as successful. A lot of the lines sound like excellent descriptions of what's going on and how the various characters are feeling but do not come across as things actual people would say. In spite of the sometimes stilted dialogue, the movie delivers emotional drama, particularly when the pending end of Banks' patrol establishes a ticking clock for his conviction to be overturned before it moves out of the court's jurisdiction.

Perhaps the most striking performance comes from Xosha Roquemore (Mrs. Lebron James in “Space Jam: A New Legacy”) as the girl who falsely accused Banks and unexpectedly reenters his life. Her dialogue doesn't sound too polished or precise; just the opposite. You wonder how on Earth these words can come out of someone's mouth – and when you remember this is at least based in truth (the accompanying bonus feature on the real story is slight), it makes the idea that a person's life could be devastated in the way Banks' was that much more unfathomable. And yet it happened, which is as much a part of the story Shadyac and Atchison are telling as Banks' resilience and determination.

Hodge, left, and the real Brian Banks

* - OK, turns out he was in “Hidden Figures,” but I can't be blamed for not remembering
one of the men in a movie about brilliant but unfairly overlooked women, can I?

** - For example, Martin Scorsese?

*** - No, it's not about me.