What if the world around you isn’t exactly as it seems? What if there’s something terrifying happening that affects your everyday life, only you’re not sure if it’s real or if you’re just paranoid? For some people, that’s called science fiction. For others, it’s a chilling reality. Netflix’s new film They Cloned Tyrone explores those ideas and conspiracies in the darkest and most entertaining manner possible. It’s certainly one of the streamer’s most unique original films to date, and it very well might be one of its best.
They Cloned Tyrone follows a drug dealer named Fontaine (John Boyega), living in a southern neighborhood called the “Glen.” His days are routine, doing the same thing every morning, seeing the same people at night. One night, while collecting money from local thug Slick Charles (Jamie Foxx), Fontaine is shot several times by some rival dealers and left for dead. Shockingly, he wakes up in his bed the next morning.
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Something is happening in the Glen. Fontaine can feel it but can’t quite explain it. Slick Charles, however, saw Fontaine die the previous night. With the help of Yo-Yo (Teyonah Parris), a sex worker, they start to uncover a town-wide conspiracy that shakes the fabric of everything they thought they knew about their own existence. Fontaine seeing his own dead body on a table in a science lab beneath a trap house is only the beginning of the journey.
In his feature directorial debut, Juel Taylor delivers a wildly entertaining film that is both a hysterical black comedy and a seething examination of systemic racism in America. They Cloned Tyrone is as much a devastating sci-fi tale as it is a beautiful homage to the Blaxploitation films of the 1970s. It’s a lot to balance, but Taylor pulls it off with a keen eye behind the camera. Cinematographer Ken Seng also succeeds in bringing a unique kind of life to the Glen, using every shot to make it feel familiar and unknown at the same time.
The film is the manifestation of the phrase “Stay Woke.” Not in the way that “woke” has been adopted and weaponized in recent years to mean “anything that isn’t white-American evangelical conservatism,” but the way the phrase was originally intended. Stay Woke has long been used in the Black community as a way of saying “keep your eyes open,” “they’re up to something, be ready.” Someone is up to something in the Glen, and they’re counting on its residents to simply live and comply without thinking too much about it. You start to wonder if every single element of life — down to the chicken you eat and the product you put in your hair — is used as a tool to oppress.
As smart and biting as the story itself is, so much hinges on the performances of the actors. Parris and Foxx are fantastic, as you’d probably expect from actors of their caliber. But make no mistake: this is John Boyega’s movie.
Boyega delivers a tour-de-force performance as Fontaine, one that will likely be brought up for the rest of his career. He disappears into the character and makes you forget he was the guy in those Star Wars movies. Every moment he’s on screen, you can’t take your eyes off of him. Much of the performance is subtle and understated, but it’s never not commanding. Denzel Washington’s turn in Training Day comes to mind. Fontaine requires a delicate balance of passive haze and burning rage, and Boyega toes that line with ease. He’s clearly a man jaded by years in the studio/IP system, but talented enough to wield those experiences as a weapon in his arsenal rather than let them drag him down.
There’s so much to unpack in They Cloned Tyrone, way more than can be discussed in a single review. To even try would be to do Taylor’s hilarious and pulpy saga a huge disservice. It’s best if you watch it unfold for yourself (then call some friends and talk about it and convince them to watch it with you). You’ll probably question your own life and choices in the process, but that’s part of the fun.
Rating: 4 out of 5
They Cloned Tyrone debuts in select theaters on July 14th. The film will be released on Netflix on July 21st.
