No one ever outruns their past. Momentary reprieves might mark your journey, but history always wins in the end. Akilla Brown knows this better than most. At the age of 15, Akilla (played by Thamela Mpumlwana) grows up embedded in the hustle of New York City’s concrete jungle, an environment governed by rival gangs and faction-fueled violence. In the wake of tragedy and death, the streetwise prodigy ventures into the unknown, forced to maneuver through the trials of adulthood alone.
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As an adult, Akilla (now played by Saul Williams) grows into a man molded by regret, shaped by isolation and currently employed in the cannabis industry. However, after his dispensary is robbed, Akilla’s life alters forever. As darkness melts into day, the broken man must confront his past and, with any luck, survive the night.
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Helmed by director Charles Officer, “Akilla’s Escape” formulates an atmospheric dissection of the cycles of violence within the Black community. The film traverses through Jamaica, NYC and Toronto and cuts across decades (1973, 1995 and 2020 respectively), but never loses sight of its centralized target theme: The perpetuation of negative influences as a result of environmental factors. Consequently, the war on drugs, gang warfare and masculinity all earn their fair share of analysis. On the whole, “Akilla’s Escape” attempts to subvert the pitfalls of the crime genre by employing subtext as its fuel and exalting commentary above conventional characterization. Silence supplants shootouts, and narrative momentum strolls rather than sprints to its destination.
Spearheaded by the combined efforts of Maya Bankovic’s cinematography and Williams’ score—a collaboration between the actor-musician and Robert Del Naja (also known as 3D) from Massive Attack—“Akilla’s Escape” constructs overtly mythological overtones atop its rudimentary crime-drama framework. The shadow-soaked, color-strewn thriller infuses its stylized depiction of the Canadian underworld with tenets from popular Greek mythology, most notably “The Iliad,” with direct references to Achilles, Athena and Thetis ranking among the film’s infatuation with folklore. Conversely, the literature of Sun Tzu and James Baldwin also cameo in order to support the crime-drama’s undercurrent of literate sophistication.
Aside from its cultural examination and crime-ridden thrills, “Akilla’s Escape” offers a standout performance from Saul Williams, although Thamela Mpumlwana should arguably be lauded as the project’s breakout star. Stretched into two relatively disparate roles—Young Akilla and Sheppard, a dispensary robber and burgeoning gang member— Mpumlwana’s aptitude as a performer shines bright.
And yet, despite its persistent determination to speak on important topics through imaginative subversion, “Akilla’s Escape” falls flat more than it succeeds by falling into the tropes it struggles to sidestep, especially in its derivative emotional appeals, unnuanced use of archetypes and subpar artistic embellishments. Moreover, on its own, Young Akilla’s coming-of-age storyline in 1995 remains woefully underdeveloped, leaving adult Akilla’s noir-ish, albeit tedious journey of redemption to fend for itself, which openly showcases its undercooked qualities.
Neither side of the coin harbors enough intrigue or substance to retain interest and combining the two narratives further exudes an unelegant fusion of ideas. Similarly, the Greek mythology elements downgrade the film’s practical discussion to an amateurish level, depriving the film from achieving any progress on its cerebral investigation of real-world, relevant issues within the global Black community.
Admittedly, “Akilla’s Escape” aims its messaging at timely topics, but neglects to offer any clear indication of its stance beyond bringing age-old issues to light. The film persists in an unwavering state of stone-faced resolution, empowered by its self-assured conviction, but ignores the opportunity to push the conversation forward. Officer asserts an eye-catching thesis statement, yet his supporting arguments either wither away or do not bloom beyond the seedling stage, depriving “Akilla’s Escape” from earning any worthwhile merit beyond the talent involved. Every inch of effort invested into crafting the feature gleams with a fiery glow, but its failure to capitalize on its potential deprives “Akilla’s Escape” from achieving memorability.
Much like its incongruent balance between arthouse aesthetics and noir-influenced realism, the film never finds steady footing, which thus prevents the film from climbing to higher ground and delivers a product that burns with passion but quickly defuses any-and-all interest. To clarify, “Akilla’s Escape” is not irredeemable nor incompetent, but its diminishing returns cripple its compositional integrity, leaving in its wake a movie mired by forgettability. In the words of Homer, “I have seen worse sights than this,” but the legacy of “Akilla’s Escape” will likely fade away into the past without so much as a whisper. [C]
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