Director: Juel Taylor
Writers: Tony Rettenmaier and Juel Taylor
Stars: John Boyega, Jamie Foxx, Kiefer Sutherland
Synopsis: A series of eerie events thrusts an unlikely trio onto the trail of a nefarious government conspiracy in this pulpy mystery caper.
From true cinephiles to your lukewarm movie ticket buyer, fans will wax poetic about Barbie and Oppenheimer this week (and they absolutely should), the most talked-about movie battle since Jurassic Park and Last Action Hero. However, scanning social media platforms for a group of dedicated movie buffs who claim to be socially conscious and advocate for those at-risk groups that face various challenges and injustices seem to have failed to talk about the most audacious, thought-provoking, hilarious, and downright brilliant Netflix film, They Cloned Tyrone. A cerebral entertainment with a bold screenplay that turns the dark comic social satire on its head, and features John Boyega giving the best performance of his career.
The film starts with Boyega trying to track down a local pimp named Slick (Jamie Foxx), who is light on his receivables this week. After confronting one of his “contracted” employees, he leaves, only to be gunned down violently and repeatedly in the motel parking lot. However, he wakes up the next day free of bullet holes, and when Slick explains what happened, Fontaine has no idea what he’s talking about. With the help of one of Slick’s worker bees, Yo-Yo (a hilarious Teyonah Parris), a Carolyn Keene enthusiast, asks herself, “What would Nancy Drew do?”
Hilariously, this code to live by generally works for them, as they find themselves in Stranger Things-like territory without the Demogorgon and more comedic. Something spooky is happening as the trio runs across some creepy things, like a black SUV that nabs random neighborhood residents while they run for their lives. Even secret laboratories are located under such community gathering places as a church, the local restaurant specializing in fried chicken, and a check-cashing outlet. Each is filled with, as Slick describes, “White guys with afros.” All are part of a nefarious organization studying and cloning people like Tyrone to reaffirm stereotypes at the hands of those in power.
Are we living in the golden age of modern social satire? Movies like Get Out, Us, Nope, and Bad Hair, have been eye-opening and relevant and tell a socially conscious story within the horror genre. Directed by Juel Taylor, who co-wrote the script with Tony Rettenmaier, they spin their script into a hysterical, biting, blaxploitation satire on urbanization and how dealing with the concept of race plays an essential role in the reproduction of patterns of power and inequality. It’s as if Taylor and Rettenmaier took the concept through the lens of Mustafa Emirbayer and Matthew Desmond’s The Racial Order (2015). Their script offers a biting comedy about cultural symbolism, a sense of community, and social interactions regarding the allure of power.
Here, the film’s villains, led by a seething and wicked Kiefer Sutherland, do not use their observations of this community as a way of better understanding a culture or community they know nothing about to bridge the gap, but to keep circumstances in their favor. To steal a term from the above scholars, “white/non-white polarity” tells the story of “two poles of racial dominance.” To keep white privilege in their favor—you see the agency’s motto in 1950s propaganda of winning the race, and they don’t mean the one to the moon—by manipulating social organization, deconstructing cultural symbolism, and fostering unity.
And yet, it’s wrapped in a whip-smart, gut-busting comedy that owes most of its humor not only to Taylor and Rettenmaier’s script but also to the incredible amount of chemistry between the three leads. In particular, when Fox and Parris, Slick, and Yo-Yo steal every scene together, Parris’s character is the fearless combination of Boyega’s fearless attitude and Slick’s craven instincts. Fox is hilarious here; no one puts a comedic stamp on a loquacious character (see Ali). All three let the barbs fly, as do the film’s funky score and peppered, well-chosen needle drops, which make the experience all the more enjoyable. However, They Cloned Tyrone is driven by the magnetic Boyega, who plays multiple versions of the titular character as stoic, purposeful, and vigilant, like in an unhinged version of Multiplicity that examines what it’s like to be viewed through a critical white lens. A wicked version of The Truman Show. It’s a blend of dark humor and a profound exploration of human behavior when labels are thrust upon us unfairly, and we cannot escape. Juel Taylor’s movie is not just one of the year’s best satires but one of the best films of 2023.
