Black Box

It also brings some devilish ingenuity to its variations on “Memento” and other “who am I?” thrillers. And it adds to that something more rare: a genuine emotional potency.

Black Box is no Memento. It’s more like a solid episode of Black Mirror, with some ideas and imagery pilfered from one of Blumhouse’s biggest hits, Get Out.

Black Box won’t galvanize audiences like “Get Out” into rethinking the way society interacts with itself. But it’s just shrewd enough to question how we interact with ourselves.

There’s just enough in Black Box to make for a mild goosebump or two this Halloween.

Without any real stylisation to shake up Nolan’s inner realities beyond bog-standard techno-realism, this sunken place has no strong signature of its own – and little to add to the African American experience.

The thriller starts out with a firm footing in horror and becomes less distinctive as it shifts into more psychological and sentimental terrain. Still, the confident storytelling keeps you watching, as well as strong performances from Mamoudou Athie as a widowed amnesiac and Phylicia Rashad as a brilliant brain specialist playing God.

Despite a potentially daring twist at the mid-mark, though, the film lacks sufficient chills, or a satisfactory payoff.

This movie is a rollercoaster of emotions. There are a lot of twist and turns. One huge one that really takes this movie to the next level. And thank goodness that twist is in there. The premise of the movie is very good. A father who loses his wife and memory in a car accident, then tries experimental treatment to gain his memory back. Is it the most original movie? No. Is it the greatest horror movie of all time? Definitely not. But I was hooked the whole time and really enjoyed this film.

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

Interesting up to a point, but like most Blumhouse films, it fails to solidify its theme and execution and what remains is hardly noteworthy.

3.75/10 One word: Derivative. Long review: Black Box is well enough made and acted but ultimately its a very bland idea cobbled together from tired and well worn tropes seen in films and TV over the last quarter century. Sadly what that means is that the only real contribution this actually makes is a politicized one due to its almost exclusively black cast. While it was good to see someone like Phylicia Rashad in a starring role after so long and the production doing a very good job of otherwise NOT making a "black" film all about race, the idea of lumping black actors into one production is just as detrimental to diversity. It illustrates how SJW culture is actually bigoted, racist and intolerant of anything not complying with its cult psuedo religion around it. The film is pretty well average and kind of boring. I enjoy a slow burn as much as anyone but I had to watch the entire thing at 1.30x speed and even then it took 12 hours to watch a 90 minute movie from getting repeatedly bored, doing something else, then forcing myself to come back to it. That is a fatal flaw in a film or any form of entertainment. If it can not keep its audience captivated it is not serving its purpose. That cost this 1.75 points imho. Otherwise it would have been a 5 on its own merit.

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]