A rookie LAPD cop must go undercover to try and take down one of LA’s local crime lords. As he falls deeper into the world of his target, he struggles to keep his personal and professional lives apart in Omar Cook and Adonis Armstrong’s LA Undercover.
Back in July, we reviewed the short film ‘Coke Boys’ by co-directors Omar Cook and Adonis Armstrong and it immediately became one of our favourite films of the year. Looking back on that review, we stated that it was easily one of the best homages to its source material that we’d seen for a long time, and with its source material being Boyz N’ The Hood, Menace II Society, and the majority of Spike Lee films, that was high praise indeed. Coke Boys was 20 minutes long and packed in a lot of material so I was really looking forward to seeing what the duo could do with a more feature-length film, albeit one that runs at just under 60 minutes long. It’s fair to say I wasn’t disappointed.
The film opens with a vicious beating by cold-blooded crime lord ‘Keys’, played by the vicious Clay Cureton who shows great versatility as he plays the complete opposite of the character he portrayed in Coke Boys. This opening brings to mind Spike Lee’s Malcolm X, which opened with footage of the beating of Rodney King by a group of LAPD officers an event that triggered the LA riots. The use of this scene immediately establishes the danger and jeopardy that our protagonist will find himself in for the rest of the film. Omar Cook plays undercover cop Corey Shaw, and his multi-layered performance exudes every-man charisma; the actor’s twitchy-yet-robust physicality while undercover makes for a consistently engaging point of contrast to his earnest looks towards his partner and the genuine fear he feels when he’s able to reflect on his sacrifices while at home.
Much like Coke Boys, Cook gives us an opening montage of the steamy LA environment and hip-hop tunes on the soundtrack from a number of up-and-coming artists. Again, his use of lighting and film grain highlights the grittiness of the environment and the situations his characters find themselves in. Although I’ve highlighted the acting of Cureton and Cook, it’s fair to say that the entire cast is really strong, with each one delivering their dialogue with an authenticity that feels truthful and urgent. There is a genuine naturalism to the performances that suggest the cast is not merely ‘acting’ but actually living these lives. Unlike the aforementioned films it uses as its jumping-off point, LA Undercover is not in itself a confrontational piece of work. As writers and directors, Cook and Armstrong are not trying to change the world or make any political points here, not yet anyway. They are merely trying to entertain us with their steady cam work and quick edits to keep the action moving, which in turn helps us to experience each violent outburst both physically and verbally. There are also some lovely establishing shots using drone footage of neon-lit LA City streets. Cook and Armstrong’s fleshing out of their characters including Keys, Corey, and his wife Sierra with sensitivity rather than focusing on the thug archetype that has become commonplace in recent similar movies has made their film more in the vein of Ryan Coogler’s output.
There are a couple of technical issues that are noticeable, such as distorted sound when characters shout, and a distinct lack of lighting for certain scenes. Meanwhile, the ending seems a little rushed and unfinished, leaving some unanswered questions, I feel a murder, as opposed to a kidnapping, would have given LA Undercover a brutally powerful ending and a memorable tragic finality. But again, Cook and Armstrong have delivered a wonderful independent movie and are quickly becoming a voice that deserves to be heard by a much larger audience.
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