Mickey Hardaway (Rashad Hunter) is an unflinching exploration into generational abuse captured with confidence by writer-director Marcellus Cox, who combines a stripped back storytelling style with visual economy to draw audiences in. His decision to shoot in black and white adds further fuel to the fire of this low-key rough diamond, as an understated intensity underpins stark depictions of domestic violence hammering home the central themes that take shape over Mickey’s formative years. With an overbearing father (David Chattam) who resents his existence, a small boy is forced to fall back on his vivid imagination and gift for animation as a form of salvation against senseless beatings.
The self-belief, however misguided, that comes through in those quiet moments between father and son when any chance at reconciliation is gone soon becomes a masterclass in close-up. David Chattam provides an emotional magnetism to his portrayal of wasted potential as Randall Hardaway, who blames everyone but himself for those self-imposed shortcomings. In the opposite corner of this domestic drama sits Gayla Johnson playing his wife Jackie, who suffers guilt of another kind having watched the joy being beaten out of her son and done nothing.
At every turn there is a performance to be admired here across an ensemble cast without equal, who ground this tragic tale with some top-tier performances, aided and abetted by a deceptively complex script. There is no denying the influence of Good Will Hunting in those early scenes between Mickey and Dr.Cameron Harden (Stephen Cofield Jr), nor a respectful hat tip or two towards Taxi Driver in the latter stages, but beyond that Mickey Hardaway rarely relies on homage and retains its own identity.
All of this might sound like heavy handed melodrama dressed up as a tub-thumping exercise by another writer-director with agendas, but Mickey Hardaway feels more arthouse than anything akin to Spike Lee at his most militant. Marcellus Cox has tapped into something unique here that remains optimistic in the face of adversity on every side, whether those obstacles occur at home or elsewhere, until this arthouse indie goes full on Paul Schrader and drifts a little too close to 70s Scorsese at his most inspired.
Mirroring moments from a confirmed classic, this writer-director pays homage hopscotch swinging for the fences, while Rashad Hunter consistently hits home runs amongst the dramatic debris, delivering a low-key tour de force complemented by splashes of over-saturated symbolism. This is only one curveball amongst many pitched at captive audiences over the course of a film that combines arthouse aspirations with shades of social commentary before closing out with a cinematic sucker punch.
However, for anyone who prefers their movies more cautious than confrontational Mickey Hardaway might hit a little too hard. Intentionally arthouse it maybe but never assume this lacks agenda driven drama beneath the cinematic substance, because Marcellus Cox is a man in full command of his material looking to build a legacy from the ground up using everything in his creative arsenal.
Mickey Hardaway will available on The Criterion Channel in 2024.
