"It’s in the water," someone says early on in this directorial debut feature from Juel Taylor (co-writer of Creed 2). Mashing up Groundhog Day with Get Out, They Live, Sorry to Bother You, Westworld, A Clockwork Orange, blaxploitation films, "X-Files shit", and more, They Cloned Tyrone is a race-conscious conspiracy caper at heart, spruced up with some zippy patter and a razor-sharp cast. Although the plotting could have used some sharpening, too, credit Taylor with this: he almost pulls off his ambitious, multi-referential clone job.
John Boyega plays Fontaine, a dealer who suspects something’s up when he’s shot dead but returns to life. More mysteries abound: why does everyone who eats Got Damn! fried chicken laugh so much? Why does the local church preach a gospel of acquiescence? And why won’t Fontaine’s mum leave her room? Working with sex worker Yo-Yo (Teyonah Parris) and ‘1995 Pimp of the Year’ Slick Charles (Jamie Foxx), Fontaine’s Scooby Doo-ish investigation steers him to a trap house, where a secret elevator leads to a murky basement full of revelations. And, erm, familiar faces…
