"Like the victim, the detective assigned to the case is also a white woman of a certain age. Detective Carlsen (Melissa Leo) suspects the family are hiding something. And they are but Asomugha's script, co-written with indie cinema auteur Mark Duplass, barely needs to mention how every encounter between people of colour and the police carries an extra charge of tension and mutual suspicion."
"With just a few subtle strokes, the screenplay underscores how everyone here is fudging the truth a bit, and its restraint is the film's quiet strength. The intensity of the single setting admittedly feels a little theatrical, but there is something audacious about the way this ends when a more conventional, melodramatic film would only be wrapping up its first act."
A late-night domestic scene of an ordinary Black American family becomes catastrophic after a downstairs sound leads to a crime and a middle-aged white woman is found bleeding unconscious. Construction worker Chris has been drinking and taking pills before checking on his two daughters and attempting intimacy with his wife, which establishes the family’s likability. Detective Carlsen, a white woman, suspects the family of concealing facts, and interactions with police are charged with racial tension and mutual suspicion. The restrained screenplay reveals small lies and paranoia within a single intense setting that culminates in an audacious ending.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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