They Cloned Tyrone: Juel Taylor, a writer and filmmaker, is aware that ideas can come from anywhere. In an interview with Netflix earlier this year, Taylor said, “I had this joke in my head for a while, like ‘an entrepreneur, a pro, and a hustler walk into a bar and they end up solving a mystery’.” That joke becomes a stepping stone in Taylor’s latest movie; They Cloned Tyrone.
Oscar winner Jamie Foxx teams up with Teyonah Parris and John Boyega to take on a government plot in the movie They Cloned Tyrone. The team has special qualifications for the position.
Boyega has fought aliens (Attack the Block) and stormtroopers (the Star Wars sequels), while Parris has recently fought furious ghosts (Candyman) and sad witches (WandaVision). Foxx’s on-screen resume also includes vampires and superheroes. Before you can say, “They cloned Tyrone,” these three ought to have everything under control. You can read more below and see the movie’s trailer up top. They Cloned Tyrone feels like a logical continuation of this subgenre, but is it exhaustive despite wanting to communicate a lot of things? Let’s investigate.
What is the plot of the latest They Cloned Tyrone movie?
Fascism has been parodied in films about aliens replacing humans with facsimiles of them, humans replacing biological individuals with clones, and anything involving brainwashing. Even as far back as Satyajit Ray’s Hirak Rajar Deshe, the title character downplayed education and freedom of speech before utilizing a real machine to further subordinate the populace of his realm. A similar argument was used by The Stepford Wives to comment on the constant harassment that women experience when attempting to escape the constraints of patriarchy.
The movies They Live and The Invasion of the Body Snatchers made clear how powerless we are in terms of protecting our individual rights. Then Jordan Peele entered the fray with Get Out and Us to discuss the fear that Black people experience as a result of their bodies being continually objectified and used as a commodity for a variety of purposes.
Glen is the name of the town where the events of Juel Taylor’s They Cloned Tyrone, which he co-wrote with Tony Rettenmaier, are set. It centres around Fontaine, a sort of collector who goes around collecting money from people who owe him. He appears to live with his mother, who never seems to leave her bedroom, and only has two companions in total: Big Moss and Junebug (who remind him of his deceased little brother). He provokes Isaac, his archenemy, by crashing his car into Crutches, one of his goons. Fontaine visits Slick Charles later that day, and while there, Isaac kills him in a drive-by. Yo-Yo, one of the ladies who works for Slick, is the only person who saw this crime take place, but Slick is the one who saw what happened next. Having said so, Fontaine conducts himself in the same manner the following day. And it is at that point that it is obvious he has been raised from the dead. Fontaine decides to find out what is happening in his community, with the aid of Slick and Yo-Yo.
Taylor and editor Saira Haider is an aesthetic disaster
To be honest, the pace of They Cloned Tyrone on Netflix is quite slow. Unable to determine the cause. Particularly if you’ve watched a lot of sci-fi films and television series, the plot twists are very predictable, and there isn’t much of a sense of wonder. By giving their scenes room to breathe, Taylor and editor Saira Haider attempt to investigate the inner lives of Fontaine, Slick, and Yo-Yo. But because it’s not interesting enough, spending time on them seems pointless.
We can agree on one thing that the film’s aesthetic. Without a doubt, a lot of effort was put into creating the retro-futuristic neon style (using clothes, technology, and vehicles) and giving Glen’s town and underground areas a lived-in appearance. Additionally, Ken Seng’s dynamic camerawork is used extensively. The transition cues and film grain are adorable. However, the finished product is uncomfortably foggy and dimly illuminated. There are various instances, particularly in the third act, where the situation becomes so murky and gloomy that we are left wondering why the characters are affected so greatly or how they’re feeling. Although it’s a noble creative decision, it has nonetheless been made in the incorrect way.
John Boyega outshines in the latest Sci-Fi thriller They Cloned Tyrone
The acting is the one aspect of They Cloned Tyrone that we don’t have any issues with. John Boyega perfectly captures Fontaine’s melancholy, brooding, and emo demeanour. His range is demonstrated by the disparity between how he behaves around Trayce Malachi and how he treats everyone else. It would be wise to make use of his capacity to portray many incarnations of himself more. This shouldn’t happen just once. The standout is undoubtedly Jamie Foxx. Foxx appears to be creating his own magical anti-gentrification trilogy with this and Day Shift. Despite being as slimy as a hagfish, Foxx exudes charm all the time and has impeccable comedic timing. Teyonah Parris, though, is the star of the program. She has incredible enthusiasm. She moves so fluidly between emotions of worry, ambition, and sensuality.
Finally, They Cloned Tyrone is a fine movie. There is little doubt that Juel Taylor and Tony Rettenmaier have a lot to say about racism, classism, capitalism, gentrification, and other issues. But in an effort to be noticed by their peers, they fall over their own feet and crash to the ground with a loud “thud.”
Awsmone rates this movie 3 out of 5. You can watch this movie on Netflix.
