In the wake of Jordan Peele’s Get Out, a whole slew of genre fare that had its roots solidly buried in the anxieties and trials of of the black experience of America and the latest out the gate is Netflix’s They Cloned Tyrone, a throwback comedy/thriller that merges quite possibly two of the most 70’s genres that have ever existed: the paranoia thriller and the blaxploitation movie.
Helmed by Juel Taylor in his first, solo, cinematic venture and populated by some of the most electrifying actor of their generation, I had high hopes for a movie that, seemingly took the social freak out of something like Soylent Green and funneled it through the prism of the sort of sketch you’d get back in the days of the Chappelle Show and thankfully the movie pulls it off beautifully.
Shrewd, intelligent and witty as hell, this review is honestly going to be an utter bitch to write, because as we all know, paranoia movies work best if you wander in colder than a polar bear’s sack.
Welcome to The Glen a neighbourhood that carries a major retro futuristic vibe as garish pimps and brooding drug dealers criss-cross each others paths while hos and average folk go about their business day in and day out. Among these suspiciously “typical” surrounding that makes The Boondocks look like a Tyler Perry movie is brooding gang anger Fontaine who lives his life by a very regimented regime after the shooting of his younger brother years earlier.
After bracing fur coated pimp, Sweet Charles for money that he’s owed, Fontaine is suddenly attacked by rival dealers and absorbs a fatal number of bullets into his vitals that seemingly brings his arc to a premature close, we get the idea that things aren’t what they seem when Fontaine wakes up in his house the next day alive, unharmed and with no memory of his recent demise. However, as he goes back to his usual daily habits, he eventually goes back to Sweet Charles’ motel room to look for his money, utterly unaware that he did the exact same thing the night before. But while Fontaine has no memory of this and his subsequent shooting, Charles absolutely does and his horrified reaction convinces Fontaine that something might actually amiss and when one of Charles hos – disgruntled, gutsy, ex-prostitute Yo-yo – confirms the story, the mismatched trio head out to find some answers.
What they find is some sort of bizarre conspiracy that involves hidden, subterranean laboratories, cloning and suspicious substances placed in such products aimed at black people as fried chicken, certain hair products and grape juice. Who the hell is behind such a wide reaching conspiracy and what would the endgame of their controlling antics possibly be?
While certainly playing within the Jordan Peele sandbox with the movie playing into the perversion and subversion of black stereotypes to tell an important message, They Cloned Tyrone manages to carve out it’s own identity which is ironically fitting considering one of the threads the film toys with is mind control. Embracing the 70’s aesthetic from Sweet Charles’ magnificently flamboyant wardrobe, to Yo-yo’s defiant ho, to even the slightly grainy picture quality complete with the occasional cigarette burn in the upper corner of the frame, We Cloned Tyrone’s visual panache feels like John Carpenter collided with Sweet Sweetback’s Badasssss Song.
The plot and tone is equally as measured with the mystery aspect of the script taking the form of Yo-yo’s huge collection of Nancy Drew novels that litter her bedroom (and whom Charles rather callously refers to as “that Scooby-Doo bitch”) and the sheer scale of the conspiracy unfurls at a good, solid pace so the various reactions from the core cast have a chance to breathe.
And breathe the cast does. After famous tenures in both Attack The Block and Star Wars, the unstoppable John Boyega adds yet another sci-fi hero to his rosta and Fontaine, in many ways, is a natural progression from the similarly stoic Moses from his alien fighting debut. While it maybe feels like Boyega is getting the short straw of playing the straight man next to the more excitable performances of Teyonah Parris and Jamie Foxx, but the sheer weight of his acting shines through buring a final reel meeting with the shadowy mastermind that is genuinely stunning.
Elsewhere, the aforementioned Foxx and Parris get to play and most of the plaudits will probably go to the former for his typically scene stealing turn as the vain, pimp as he fires out rapid-fire bangers with no signs of tiring – in fact, his proud statement that he was the 1995 International Players Ball “‘Pimp Of The Year” may be one of the greatest deliveries the actor has ever given. However, as impressive as Boyega and Foxx obviously are, standing out is Parris’ endearingly inventive Yo-yo who proves to be the true heart of the film as, thanks to a natural quick wit and a childhood submerged in mystery stories, she’s the one who truly wants to solve this puzzle for the neighbourhood at large while Fontaine is more focused on revenge and Charles is just…. there. In fact, some of the biggest laughs is her desperately trying to put her prostitute past behind her and get her previously untapped brain in gear with mixed results. One minute she’s revealing large chunks of exposition, the next she’s trying to be incognito in the most conspicuous suit and shades combo you’ve ever seen and is immediately recognized from across the street by a colleague who dubs her Carmen “Santiag-ho”.
While it may seem that some of They Cloned Tyronne’s target may be low hanging fruit (using fried chicken, grape juice and hair products as components of mind control seem like something that would be more at home in Black Dynamite), but once the movie reveals more of itself, the satire become more impressively insidious. The real noodle melter is that once you watch the movie a second time, you realise that the very throwback nature to the whole film may be a direct result of the freaky tinkering that been going on, fits directly into the slow death of community that the film is alluding to.
Maybe not as a relentless laugh-riot as you originally may have thought, They Cloned Tyrone has enough big ideas and small moments to be a fascinating addition to the growing pantheon of black genre movies.
However, the true mystery is how this movie didn’t get a larger cinematic release when They Cloned Tyrone has enough ideas for several movies – possibly also cloned…
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