Amazing Review – An elusive thriller that strangely blends Blumhouse and Tyler Perry | Thriller movies

STruong is a cautionary tale about following your gut. Directed by Malcolm D. Lee — the underrated creator behind Girls Trip, Barbershop, and other great franchises — the Peacock thriller stars Chloe Bailey as Laila, a classical violinist who has her sights set on a seat in the city’s orchestra. An alternative music teaching gig leaves that dream further away than ever until Lila meets Lynn Whitfield’s Audra—who not only offers more stable and lucrative work as a private music teacher for her granddaughter, but also offers an inside track to the orchestra.

Of course, Laila is so bright-eyed, so bubbly, so overwhelmed with luxury that she suddenly crosses over to see that it’s all too good to be true. Audra’s daughter, Imani (DC Titans’ Anna Diop), is frozen and untouched by the lifeline of childcare, even in her third trimester. Precious schoolgirl Zuri (Romey Woods) is a modern child with problems: hypersensitive, emotionally isolated, forever hiding behind the mask of a Dahomey warrior. The schoolboy’s antisocial behavior, and its chilling echoes of another young black girl who loom large in Lila’s imagination (her sister, we later learn), are supposed to prepare Zuri for the role of the classic child killer. But Lee abandons this tension fairly quickly, instead tracing the girl’s quirks back to the murder of her rapper father. It’s not until Imani’s husband, Marcus (Emilie in Lucien La Viscount in Paris), enters the picture again — he and Leila were linked before she was hired to tutor his stepchild in another coincidence, more disturbing this time — that Strong begins to feel truly disoriented.

Considering how insistently Strung’s screenwriter, Alan McElroy, is on returning to the theme of instinct, you wish the film itself had as much courage in its own conviction. Suspense thrillers are supposed to be tense and fast, an anxiety factory operating at maximum efficiency. But Strung is full of twists and turns, each more tedious than the last: secondary character development, romantic entanglements, and flashbacks to her sister—which somehow remain unclear even after Audra clarifies the relationship. The fixation on Zuri’s physical and mental condition becomes so acute that you would expect it to lead to a deeper reflection on the early childhood development needs of black children who have been unduly exposed to trauma. Instead, the film drags on — for nearly two hours — and the central tension flickers until the whole thing feels more like a purpose-built film than a limited series hastily combined into one, with Lee subtly opening the door for a sequel.

However, it cannot be said that Strung was not masterfully assembled. The art department and visual effects team underscore the sterility of this rich world, more of a gilded cage than anything truly ambitious – all while looking, as is often the case with US-focused productions shot in South Africa, as is the case anywhere in particular. You can practically see the steam coming off Laila, Imani, and Marcus, thanks to the care cinematographer Greg Gardiner takes in framing their varying skin tones against the hues of gold, indigo, and crimson. You can breathe a sigh of relief knowing that Strong’s soundtrack—a mix of classical standards, jazz, and hip-hop—is at least tonally appropriate. And you can also rest assured that Lee, who really excels at comedy, doesn’t take Strung too seriously.

Grammy Award-winning singer Coco Jones makes a good cameo appearance as Yasmine, the skeptical friend who questions Layla’s every move before tagging along anyway. During a fact-finding visit with Zuri’s other grandmother (the wonderful Doña Bisco), Yasmine asks Laila if she believes the old girl’s story; Laila says no, but reluctantly. “Okay,” Jasmine joked, “tell your face now.”

That’s it in a nutshell: the show doesn’t match the story. The film doesn’t have enough suspense to attract the suspense crowd, nor enough gore to attract the demons, nor does it make much of an attempt to surprise what’s behind the snake in the closet – it’s more of a confusing twist than a twist. It’s almost too funny, but not in the disturbing sense. People who are a little sensitive have nothing to fear. The only real dangers here are a few over-stretched strings, Zuri’s sensibility, and a melodramatic finale that feels like the kind of thing that could only be cooked up in a Blumhouse and Tyler Perry co-production — which, by the way, it is.

But then again, Strung wasn’t created to win prestige or generate box office receipts, or even to be some kind of Black Swan. Designed to be watched and re-watched while doing chores, or as a compromise in an indecisive household, quietly engaging Peacock throughout. The ultimate irony of Strung is that it’s just another industrial practice of ignoring your gut in favor of playing it safe — and on this score, unfortunately, it sings.