Worth: $5.00
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Cast:
Isaiah Jimenez, Casey Starchak, Michelle Nuñez, Dennis Mallen, Michael A. Blank, Dennis Mallen
Intro:
… never feels biting enough or shocking enough to make the audience sit up to take notice.
Gray People is the feature-length debut from filmmaker, Romello Blade, where he expands his 12-minute original short into a girthier and flabbier slab of satirical comedy. At least, that appears to be the idea.
Former writer for The Daily Show, Elliot Kalan, once noted that enjoyment could be mined from a bad horror movie, but the same rule does not apply to a bad comedy. And unfortunately, this is what we have here.
Unemployed Nick (Isaiah Jimenez) lives a mundane existence with his Obama-loving mother. Despite her Democratic leanings – she would have voted Obama for a third term, you know – mom verbally abuses her son regularly and thinks nothing of being racist towards the Graynese; a group of fictional immigrants given passage by the US to start new lives far away from their own crumbling society.
Like Nick’s mother, there are a number of people, from all walks of life, who would rather have the new citizens simply go back to where they came from. With their dark, matted grey skin, they are looked down upon, referred to as ‘zombies’ and seen as the cause of most of America’s problems. To hammer the point home, in a news reel montage at the beginning, one talking head confesses, “I’m just glad they’re taking pressure off us black people.”
Meanwhile, Nick’s friend Kyle (Casey Starchak), also unemployed, has just found out that despite his parents being people of colour, he is always destined to be white. A fact that hits him pretty hard to the bemusement of Nick, who is black. It should be noted that Gray People tries to do a spin on Steve Martin’s adoption revelation in The Jerk, but it’s not worth going into. Coupled with his girlfriend thinking that he’s a loser, Kyle is also looking for a lucky break.
When the pair catch wind of a small business programme looking to support and bolster the Gray community, they decide to do the only thing they can think of and grey themselves up in hopes of getting some sweet, sweet benefits. Yes, it appears that we’re looking down the barrel of a Soul Man remake. There are also a bunch of other sub-plots; including Nick’s love interest, actual Gray woman Zeka (Michelle Nunuez), and sleazy businessman Madoff (Dennis Mallen), that pad out the near two-hour running time, but there’s nothing really of substance.
Blade’s influences are clear, and Gray People feels like a Wayans brother production. Often obviously so. For example, after a bit of politically charged dialogue, Nick breaks the fourth wall to raise a power fist, and it just feels like an empty reminder of Kennan Ivory Wayans screaming “Message” in Don’t Be a Menace To South Central While Drinking Your Juice In The Hood, a much better film. Things genuinely grind to a halt when the film’s second half sees our heroes moved to the confines of a conference room, and it appears to become a series of sketches.
With its stereotypes and ‘politically incorrect’ humour, Gray People wants to wear the badge of where we offend one; we offend all. However, it never feels biting enough or shocking enough to make the audience sit up to take notice. Its approach to tackling America’s issues with race and immigration was better explored in much shorter forms of media, such as South Park’s infamous Goodbacks episode. Despite everyone on screen clearly having the best time, it’s a shame that this sense of joy does not drip-feed back to the audience.
