CYCLE OF VIOLENCE (TWO DISTANT STRANGERS)

When it comes to making time loop movies, good luck trying to trump Harold Ramis' 1993 comedy 'Groundhog Day' with Bill Murray.

Described by Sight and Sound as a Hollywood comedy imagined by Samuel Beckett, it remains the high watermark for films about people stuck reliving the same day.

Over the years, there have been various attempts to recreate it's magic across genres.

We have had sci-fi thriller takes on the time loop concept like Duncan Jones' 2011 film 'Source Code' with Jake Gyllenhaal and Doug Liman's 2014 Tom Cruise vehicle 'Edge of Tomorrow (Live. Die. Repeat)'.

Christopher Landon's 2017 tale 'Happy Death Day' and his 2019 sequel 'Happy Death Day 2 U' gave it a horror movie twist.

A whole Festive Season genre of the time loop movie has sprung up, with Donald Duck's nephews Huey, Louie and Dewie reliving Christmas Day in the 1999 direct to video anthology 'Mickey's Once Upon A Christmas' and Erik Von Detten's teenager and Jay Mohr's composer reliving Christmas Day in two TV movies - the Family Channel's 'Christmas Every Day' and ABC Family's 'The Christmas Do Over'.

Even Andy Samberg, Cristin Miliotti and JK Simmons have got in on the act recently with Max Barbakow's Amazon Prime sci-fi romcom 'Palm Springs'.

Travon Free and Martin Desmond Roe's Academy Award nominated Netflix short film 'Two Distant Strangers', however, takes the concept and uses it to make a powerful point about racism in the US.

Brooklyn rapper Joey Bada$$ plays comic book designer Carter James who wakes up beside Zaria Simone's sassy Perri.

As they get out of bed, they awkwardly navigate whether their encounter will become more than a one night stand.

Perri offers to make Carter breakfast but he has to get home to his dog who he informs via an app linked to a speaker in his apartment that he is on his way.

Putting on his headphones listening to Bruce Hornsby and the Range's classic 1986 pop song 'The Way It Is', Carter holds the door open for a man entering the building.

He says hello to a glamorous woman walking down the street and reaches for his backpack to reach for a cigarette while dropping a bundle of cash that was inside it onto the street.

Carter accidentally backs into a hipster carrying coffee, spilling it on his shirt.

The guy whines and ignores his genuine apology and offer to reimburse him when Carter suddenly is confronted by Andrew Howard's Officer Merk.

The police officer enquires if there is a problem, implies that Carter is smoking marijuana, notices the wad of cash and asks what business is he in?

Insisting he be addressed as "sir" when Carter explains he is in graphic design, Merk demands that he searches Carter's bag.

The situation escalates and Carter quickly finds himself pinned down by Merk and two other officers to the sidewalk in a choke hold reminiscent of the final moments of George Floyd as a street vendor films the incident and decries police harrassment.

We uncomfortably watch as they gradually extinguish his life in the choke hold.

Suddenly Carter wakes up beside Perri again and initially believes it was just a nightmare.

But it doesn't take long for him to realise he is reliving the same trauma, with Perri knocking over a vase like she did before, him encountering the same people on the sidewalk while narrowly avoiding bumping into the hipster and Officer Merk suddenly appearing to ask about the cigarette and the wad of cash.

This time, Carter is gunned down by Merk on the street after they scuffle and the incident is filmed again by the appalled street vendor.

Once again after dying, Carter wakes up beside Perri.

Over the course of the film, Carter is shot in Perri's apartment by Merk and a SWAT team and then repeatedly by the police officer on the street as he desperately bolts out of the apartment in the hope of escaping his time loop fate.

Eventually when he explains to Perri the nightmare he keeps reliving, she suggests he reasons with Merk and explains what is happening.

However is it possible to rationally talk a uniformed racist into seeing him for who he really is?

It's not that difficult to figure out where Free and Roe are going with this film.

America is undoubtedly repeating the same nightmare of young African Americans being gunned down by cops in their homes, in public places and on the streets.

And to ram it home in the final credits, Free and Roe list the real victims of controversial police killings to the sound of Hornsby's song and randomly give the details of how some of those people died.

In many ways, the list they print overshadows everything else in the film. 

Reading it is a sobering experience - especially when you see that Eric Garner had just broken up a fight when he was killed, that Michelle Cusseaux was changing the lock on her front door, that Tamir Rice was playing in the park or that Botham Jean was in his living room eating ice cream.

It may not be the most subtle of films but Free and Roe do a decent job, constructing a time loop story that at first seems light and fluffy like a romcom but soon develops into something much more disturbing.

A subject like this doesn't always merit a subtle approach, demanding that it be confronted and that's what they do very effectively.

As Free and Roe use the time loop tale to tap into a broader societal issue, they are hugely assisted by Alex Odesmith's smart editing and Jessica Young's vibrant cinematography.

Bada$$, Simone and Howard are also note perfect in their roles and there is plenty to suggest that Free and Roe could be a directorial partnership to keep an eye on.

As the end credits roll, however, it is hard to think of anything other than the central message of 'Two Distant Strangers' and the reality of what it depicts.

The US badly needs to address institutional racism - particularly in police forces across the country.

As the world awaits a verdict in the trial of Officer Derek Chauvin over the death of George Floyd in Minnesota, it is clear an honest national conversation is desperately needed about the issues his and other killings have raised.

Otherwise, the US seems destined to repeat the controversial deaths of people like Tanisha Anderson, Walter Scott, Natasha McKenna, Philandro Castile, Bettie Jones, Breonna Taylor and Daunte Wright and it will continue to tear itself apart.

Whether it wins or not on Oscar night is immaterial. 

'Two Distant Strangers' feels like a film very much of its time that needs to be seen widely and debated.

The sad thing is: it would have bern a film of its time had it been told in the 1910s, 30s, 60s, 80s or 2010.

('Two Distant Strangers' was released on Netflix on November 20, 2020) 

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