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Weekend Watch is here for you. Every Friday we’re going to recommend the best of what’s new to rent on VOD or stream for free. It’s your weekend; allow us to make it better.
What to Stream This Weekend
Movie: Crown Heights
Director: Matt Ruskin
Starring: Lakeith Stanfield, Nnamdi Asomugha, Adriane Lenox
Available on: Amazon Prime
In April of 1980, after a shooting death in the Flatbush neighborhood of Brooklyn, an 18-year-old named Colin Warner was arrested for murder. Warner was identified via photograph by the victim’s brother as someone who looked familiar; a neighborhood kid was pressured by police to testify that he saw Warner driving the getaway car. At trial, Warner’s co-defendant — the actual killer, who Warner had never met — got a lighter sentence because he was a juvenile. Warner, being 18 and thus an adult, got 15-to-life.
Colin Warner didn’t kill anybody, and his childhood friend Carl “KC” King spent over 20 years working to overturn his conviction. The story was captured in a 2005 This American Life episode, which in turn inspired writer/director Matt Ruskin to make this movie. It’s the kind of story that you hear and think “this should be a movie.” It’s Ruben “Hurricane” Carter, only this time in pre-gentrified Brooklyn, with a black man railroaded by white cops, and the friend who never gave up on him.
Matt Ruskin’s Crown Heights premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January to raves, was very quickly acquired by Amazon Studios, and by the end of the festival, it had taken the Audience Award for dramatic films. It’s not hard to see why. It’s a rousing, inspiring story that feels honestly triumphant without the attendant manipulation that these films often bring with them. Where it often falls short is in Ruskin’s hurried direction, which doesn’t really linger on anything for too long, in the interest of fitting the whole fascinating story into the film. You end up seeing why a story like HBO’s The Night Of — which Crown Heights is often reminiscent of; they even both co-star Bill Camp — needed to be told over the span of a multi-hour limited series.
But as condensed as Ruskin’s film can be, it is again and again rescued by the phenomenal performances therein. In particular, Lakeith Stanfield and Nnamdi Asomugha as Colin and KC, respectively, make a pair of incredibly persuasive cases for themselves to be at the forefront of the next generation of black American actors.
Stanfield has been building to this for a while. He first made an impression for his supporting performance in the 2013 film Short Term 12, where he played a resident at a youth group home with a soul and sensitivity that felt revelatory.
After an Independent Spirit Award nomination, Stanfield went on to roles in Selma, Dope, and Oliver Stone’s Snowden, before landing his most significant role to date, in Donald Glover’s TV series Atlanta, playing the delightfully off-center Darius. Ever since, Stanfield’s star has been steadily on the rise, including a trio of Netflix movies (The Incredible Jessica James; War Machine; and Death Note) and a featured role in Jordan Peele’s Get Out. No man’s presence at a garden party has ever been more narrowing.
Stanfield’s co-star Nnamdi Asomugha has enjoyed an even more interesting road to acting fame. From 2003-2013, Asomugha was an all-pro cornerback in the National Football League, playing most of his years for the Oakland Raiders. During that time, as many athletes do, he made some guest appearances on TV shows like The Game and Friday Night Lights. But once his athletic career had ended, he began to take roles in feature films, including Beasts of No Nation (which he co-executive produced) and Hello, My Name Is Doris. But by far, Crown Heights is Asomugha’s most high-profile role, and he absolutely nails it. KC’s determination and frustration in the face of a vast and unsympathetic system are the film’s secret weapons.
The entire Crown Heights cast is fantastic, actually. Adriane Lenox, a stage veteran best known to TV fans as Jack Donaghy’s stoic, hard-negotiating nanny on 30 Rock, has some dynamite scenes as Colin’s mother, character actors Zach Grenier and Josh Pais play the bullying cop/prosecutor duo, and in just a few scenes, Amari Cheatom dazzles as the victim’s brother.
As a film, Crown Heights might not be greater than the sum of its parts — an invigorating true story performed by a stellar cast of actors — but with parts this great, it’s still well worth your time.
