1992, 2024.
Directed by Ariel Vromen.
Starring Tyrese Gibson, Scott Eastwood, Ray Liotta, Dylan Arnold, Clé Bennett, Oleg Taktarov, John West Jr, Michael Beasley, Ori Pfeffer, Tosin Morohunfola, Nathan Cooper, Declan Joyce, Christopher Ammanuel, Trevion Twosifix Pleasant, Hanad Abdi, and Renae Anderson.
SYNOPSIS:
In 1992, Mercer is desperately trying to rebuild his life and his relationship with his son amidst the turbulent Los Angeles uprising following the Rodney King verdict. Across town, another father and son put their own strained relationship to the test as they plot a dangerous heist to steal catalytic converters, which contain valuable platinum, from the factory where Mercer works. As tensions rise in Los Angeles and chaos erupts, both families reach their boiling points when their worlds collide.
Set during the Los Angeles Rodney King riots in 1992 (from co-writer-director Ariel Vromen penning the screenplay and conceiving the story alongside Sascha Penn) is a tale of two inevitably converging stories and different families of fathers and sons. One group is Black from a rough neighborhood, with the father Mercer (a stern and protective Tyrese Gibson) looking to bring his teenage son Antoine (Christopher Ammanuel) to the platinum metals factory he works for to hole up for the night. The lone security guard, Joseph (Michael Beasley), stays the night after all the workers have been ordered to go home for safety purposes. There is some friction between them, with the rebellious son wishing his father shared a similar attitude toward such harrowing abuse of law enforcement power and racism. Meanwhile, the once disgraced Mercer is prioritizing his second chance at life to give his son the essentials and a decent life, hopefully providing a more fulfilling path to walk.
Then there is a white trio of Scott Eastwood’s Riggin who had been plotting a heist of that platinum factory before the riots started. His younger, scrawnier brother Dennis (Dylan Arnold) is nervous but willing to follow him into any situation. Their ruthless father Lowell (the legendary, now deceased Ray Liotta in his final on-screen performance) is skeptical of going through with the heist, noting that while they have the required tools to crack into the safe, they still have no way around the heavy surveillance. It turns out that the riots will give them the perfect window to get in and out undetected while also cutting surveillance feeds.
In that regard, it’s a fascinating dynamic with one half of this equation trying to navigate their way through the riot and into a safe building and the other white half seeing an opportunity to pull off a big heist and escape that lifestyle filthy rich. Riggin also brings a Black friend for the job (Clé Bennett’s Copeland) to point out that these brothers aren’t necessarily racist, even if they are taking advantage of an event stemming from Black trauma.
Aside from Lowell generally being a heartless monster who doesn’t show any affection for his kids (there is evil behind his bug eyes and sociopathic line delivery, serving as one final reminder that, even when playing a one-dimensional nasty human being, Ray Liotta is a dynamic force of nature on-screen), he is also somewhat racist. He brings aboard some equally awful partners of his own for the job. Perhaps unsurprisingly, they are cruel individuals with whom Riggin attempts to push back against working.
With all of this elaborate setup for the character dynamics, it is slightly disappointing that 1992 isn’t too interested in diving into the racial politics of the story. Instead, it’s more content to function as a boilerplate heist flick and a father-son drama that stops short of digging into those same politics. Antoine wants his father to stand up to racist white men and law enforcement, whereas sometimes Mercer is preoccupied with defending innocent white bystanders from harassment or complying with uncomfortable car stoppages and services from police officers. These sequences are compelling but fail to add up to much in the bigger picture.
Roughly an hour into 1992, everyone is finally in the same platinum factory, where everything takes a harder pivot into action-thriller territory. That is also not necessarily a flaw since there are stakes and tension, but some of the shifting character dynamics (including that previously mentioned scene of Mercer physically defending a white couple) feel somewhat forced to ensure white viewers are still comfortable watching this. Any intriguing debates and beliefs that come up in the more dialogue-heavy first hour don’t have much payoff outside of a father finally fighting back to protect his son and the crumbling of the other family.
1992 does keep us on edge during that stretch, though, and across much of what comes before. The premise itself is too clever an idea to dismiss the film entirely for its shortcomings, offset mainly by outstanding turns from Tyrese Gibson and Ray Liotta.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★
Robert Kojder is a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association and the Critics Choice Association. He is also the Flickering Myth Reviews Editor. Check here for new reviews, follow my Twitter or Letterboxd, or email me at MetalGearSolid719@gmail.com
