Few issues irritate me greater than the phrase “Based on a true story.” “I’m Charlie Walker” illustrates why. Anybody searching for reality in a film is a rattling idiot because the Coen brothers so humorously proved it with “Fargo.” Nevertheless, that phrase exists to present filmmakers license to throw incredulous plot particulars and unsupported info onscreen and count on viewers to take them on religion. These 5 phrases at all times make me do my homework, and worse, put me on guard. Fortunately, author/director Patrick Gilles saves me the difficulty of getting to dig for particulars. He ends the movie with the next phrase: “All characters and events in this film, even those based on real individuals, are completely fictional.”
This feels much less like betrayal and extra like B.S. I was puzzled if the true, unembellished story had been extra attention-grabbing. Particularly after the display screen that follows the aforementioned tells us that the true Charlie Walker was charged with 23 felonies and served time within the Eighties. It’s implied that a few of these expenses had been trumped up, probably resulting from Walker’s race. I assumed, “Wait, what?! Is that true or not?” You’ll be able to’t simply toss something like that in on the finish as some sort of “oh, by the way, people…” element. We additionally see the true Charlie Walker, who tells us what he did with the cash the movie reveals his income. He looks like a captivating character simply from the little we see of him.
The fictional Charlie is performed by Luke Cage’s Mike Colter. Walker is a Black man who owns a truck. He offers with on regular basis racism as he tries to get gigs in San Francisco. His spouse Ann (Safiya Fredericks) narrates the film with descriptions that always inform us how good, crafty and great her husband is. Her phrases put a hat on the prime of a hat, and as a result, the film itself is equally in love with Charlie’s antics. Colter is such a charismatic presence, a wise, humorous, and commanding power, that we’re prepared to observe him wherever. “I’m Charlie Walker” squanders that goodwill by making Charlie cussed however flawless. Each transfer he makes is the proper one, even when it’s legally suspect. Not since Morgan Freeman’s Joe Clark in “Lean on Me” has a real-life particular person’s ass been kissed extra by a film. No less than that film had superior lips.
Because of the timeframe, “I’m Charlie Walker” appears lots like a Blaxploitation film. The poster alone instantly jogged my memory of the period. That sense of time and place, with its costumes, hairstyles, and mistrust of the Man, is the perfect factor in regards to the movie. I imagined Jim Brown in Colter’s function, navigating the medicine, hippies, racists, and evil businessmen that populate this movie. One minute, Walker is good speaking a contractor into integrating his group, the subsequent, he’s beating the crap out of bodyguards despatched by the movie’s Mr. Huge to manhandle him. The villain right here is oil firm president Bennett (Dylan Baker). No stranger to taking part in dangerous guys, Baker makes a nice, smarmy foil for Colter’s cool demeanor.
Baker is the top of the oil firm whose tanker has crashed exterior San Francisco, sending its contents everywhere in the seashores of the Bay space. The hippies wish to save the wildlife and the shoreline. Bennett needs to avoid wasting face. Charlie Walker simply needs a job utilizing his truck to assist with the cleanup. After convincing trucking bigwig Chuck Sumner (Lyle Kanouse) to assist him get a project, Charlie picks the worst attainable seashore upon which to navigate vehicles. Wouldn’t you realize that many of the oil immediately shifts course and begins touchdown on Charlie’s seashore? “Money is no object for cleaning this up,” he’s instructed by the oil bigwigs. Our hero takes that suggestion as a problem.
A lot is made about Charlie being a Black boss to whom White males should reply. The peace and love crowd is cool with it, however, they’re within the minority. Ann catches faux cops breaking into her home in an try to border her husband for medicine. Chuck and Bennett are OK with having “one of those people” engaged on the project, however, aren’t so pleased as soon as his efforts begin exhibiting them up. Ever the hustler-slash-marketing wizard, Charlie begins showing on San Francisco T.V. to advertise simply how a lot better he’s doing than these White of us. I can totally consider how uppity they thought Charlie was. It’s unlucky how cartoonish Gilles depicts this.
Till its trashy climax, “I’m Charlie Walker” by no means offers perception into Charlie’s thought course or how he comes up with the concepts for a job he’s by no means held earlier than. Ann simply retains telling us how nice he’s. “Show, rather than tell!” I wrote in my pocketbook. However credit score the place it’s due: we’re given two nice scenes with a cab driver performed by former San Francisco mayor Willie Brown. Since he began his political profession within the Sixties, Brown matches properly into the time interval. He tries to present Walker with some recommendation, “wisdom from the old heads,” as we used to name it in my ‘hood, but Charlie doesn’t hear. Brown matches Colter beat for beat, and their scenes crackle with a trustworthy actuality that’s sorely missing for the remainder of this movie’s quick, 78-minute runtime.