 ‘88’ Review:
Finding Hate in Numbers
In this new political
thriller, a campaign finance manager uncovers a corrupt scheme.
By Glenn Kenny
Feb.
16, 2023 The
political thriller “88,” written and directed (and produced and edited) by
Eromose, feeds the audience a lot of information about today’s campaign
finance laws and the ways they enable corruption. The film reaches its first
boiling point 40 minutes in, and has further surprises in store. Femi
Jackson (Brandon Victor Dixon), the beleaguered financial manager of a super
PAC backing the presidential candidate Harold Roundtree (Orlando Jones),
uncovers a scheme linked to the movie’s title and that number’s connection to
Nazis, both old school and new. “It doesn’t matter where the money comes from if no one
ever looks,” one snakelike character connected to the PAC tries to reassure
another. But Femi is looking, and he makes increasingly
disturbing discoveries along the way.
The
tenor of this fervent picture comes through at Femi’s breakfast table early
in the movie. Complaining that their young son Ola (Jeremiah King) wants a
Wakanda-themed birthday party, Femi’s wife, Maria (Naturi Naughton), begins a
trenchant denunciation of “Black Panther,” saying Wakanda is a fantasy for
the benefit of the white corporate entities that finance it. Trying to
de-escalate the debate, Femi wryly observes of the first “Panther” movie, “It
made a billion dollars.” Maria shoots back, “For who?” Eromose is a sharp thinker with a lot on his mind —
and the inability to resist the urge to cram it all into a single movie.
Sobriety, the inequities of banking practices, the “talk” Black parents have
with their children about the police and, of course, capitalism — all these
topics and more come under examination here. Combined with the increasingly
“Parallax View”-like plot machinations, the result is dramatically wonky —
and eccentrically thought-provoking.
Director Eromose Writer Eromose
Stars Shellye
Broughton, Gregory Butler, Jonathan Camp, Vinny
Chhibber, Kenneth Choi
Running Time 2h 2m
Genre Thriller  |
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bEMA International
Washington, D.C. 20020
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Communication, Coordination, Community engagement, and Partnering (C5&P)
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