Though constantly being on the lookout for any and all movie releases, somehow "Body Cam" came on my radar this morning as a surprise - a welcome one at that. Decent cast, intriguing story, and I went right in not expecting much. "Body Cam" is Malik Vitthal's sophomore directional feature, written by Nicholas McCarthy ("The Pact", "The Prodigy") and Richmond Riedel, starring two Oscar nominee Mary J. Blige ("Mudbound"), Nat Wolff ("Death Note"), David Zayas ("Gotham"), and more.
Renee (Mary J. Blige) is a veteran police officer, coming back to work after a hiatus propelled by a personal tragedy. On her first return shift she gets partnered with a rookie cop Danny (Nat Wolff), and the duo respond to a crime scene that has their fellow officer dead in a horrible way. Renee sees the unexplainable nature of what went down on the dead officers cars dashcam, but she appears to be the only one seeing it. Renee is determined to uncover the mystery and takes Danny along the ride. Naturally, the trip leads to horrible truths and incomprehensible happenings. The story is, frankly, paper thin, and relies mostly on social commentary about the horrors of corruption in police. While the thought is clear and concise, being socially conscious is not enough of a substitute for a plot. Plus another downside is that the narrow plot is also very predictable. There's also the supernatural side of the same story - both lines get cultivated and built slowly, risking to cross the border of tediousness, and eventually culminate in a finale that feels somewhat underwhelming and perhaps lesser than some of the more packed sequences on the road before. As a cop thriller, minus the social commentary, "Body Cam" grinds old wheels and doesn't go deep into anything. As a horror movie, it's mostly slow, dark and (not so effectively) brooding. However, the delicious garnish are the action sequences, where the horror hits in the form of grisly kills. In other words, necessary intermissions, because the pacing is one that suffers a bit in the first hour.
Mary J. Blige gives a well-rounded and vulnerable lead performance, further supported by the squirrelly Danny in which Nat Wolff strives for sympathy, and David Zayas as Sergeant Kesper. Characters, if not excellent, weren't the link that's the weakest of "Body Cam", for it's most definitely the story, or rather the absence of it. Compliments also go out to the cinematographer Pedro Luque ("Don't Breathe"), "Body Cam" is visually well composed, contrastive and simply good looking, albeit sometimes optioning for scenes/sequences too dark and too long.
The verdict is such that "Body Cam" arguably managed to do the things it set out to do, but it wasn't enough to fill the 90 minutes. The results then also include slower pacing, emptier chunks, consequently risking to feel boring. Nevertheless, in the times when so little new movies come out, "Body Cam" is an enjoyable thriller with horror more as the supporting genre, just as long as you don't watch purely for the story. My rating: 5/10.
