Dir. Ariel Schulman, Henry Joost
With the newly regular release of Streaming Service Original movies, there’s constant discussion over whether the movie du jour would have thrived in a theatrical run (back when there was such a thing), and while I’m not entirely sure it matters, I do think Project Power is a film that would have worked equally well in either format. It just so happens that for all of us in the U.S still on lockdown, Netflix was able to give us a bit more of the summer blockbuster spirit from the safety of our couches.
Project Power follows Robin (Dominique Fishback), a 15 year old girl trying to pay her mother’s medical bills by selling Power, a new street drug that gives users superpowers for 5 minutes. She has a working relationship with Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s Frank, a New Orleans cop who buys from her to chase down other power-enhanced criminals. They are both sucked into the Major’s (Foxx) ceaseless quest to get to the source of Power, after the Major kidnaps Robin for information on the drug supply chain.
While it’s a fairly straight forward plot for the most part, the movie keeps a fast pace and remains high energy enough to keep you entertained. The less engrossing parts of the film rest on the charisma of the leads, and they have that in spades. Jamie Foxx and Joseph Gordon-Levitt give a predictably entertaining performance but it’s newcomer Dominque Fishback who steals the show. Though we’re introduced to Robin’s “harder” side as a teenaged New Orleans’ drug dealer first, it’s her compassion and vulnerability that become quickly apparent and defining of her character. I really appreciated that she does get scared, and she does cry. Despite the situation in which she’s found herself, Robin is still very much a minor and she behaves like one. She’s made those hard choices because she needed to help her struggling mother and throughout the movie she routinely endangers herself to help the man who kidnapped her get his daughter back. And on top of all that her rapping was impeccable. Fishback’s portrayal was instantly endearing and I hope and expect to see more of her very soon.
There’s a lot of things about this movie that feel dated, especially in regards to the police, military, poverty, and the racial intersections of the aforementioned. It was hard not to cringe a bit at Foxx’s Major lecturing Robin on how to improve her circumstances “the right way” like joining the military…the same military that experimented on him and kidnapped his daughter. Or Frank trying to save his city from the criminals on Power by taking it himself, which of course is Fine and Good because he’s a cop. The wild card cop who doesn’t play by the rules is a film favorite archetype but not a timely one in light of 2020 protests against police brutality and lack of accountability. But even with these very valid critiques, neither of these things are prominent enough to make the movie not enjoyable. (Especially if you’re accompanying your film experience with some mixed drinks and are just trying to take a wee mental break from the complicated politics of…everything.)
Project Power is a good time. It doesn’t reinvent the wheel, but it does do a fun twist on the superhero genre with all-star leads and a fantastic newcomer, making it well worth the watch. (And it teaches some fun animal facts! Win-win!) If you’re missing the summer box office and the big, bombastic action films that usually go with it, a hit of this might just soothe that itch.