Mo McRae's directorial debut "A Lot of Nothing" tackles a sensitive and relevant topic - police killings of unarmed victims in the Black community. The film follows James and Vanessa, a wealthy Black couple, who perform their own twisted citizen's arrest after learning that their white neighbor and cop killed a kid. The film is audacious and creative in its cinematography and musical score. However, it falls short in its writing, as the characters are poorly developed and serve as mere soundboards for the film's proposed intelligence. The film's themes are not explored with meaningful depth, and the big reveal leaves the film's stance on race and social capital muddled. Despite its weaknesses, McRae shows promise in his direction and artistic capabilities.
11 Reviews
Could have been better
FeastMode14 April 2023
A Lot of Nothing is a mostly decent movie with an interesting premise. That premise could have been executed a lot better, but I was still mildly enjoying most of it. My favorite is the character played by Shamier Anderson. And it feels technically well-made.
A few things hold this movie back for me. There are some subplots that seem completely unnecessary and don't fit the rest of the story. I also feel like the story lacks focus with it's themes, partly due to the unnecessary subplots. And when we find out details about the victim late in the movie, I strongly disliked where it went with that.
It's not the worst thing you can do with your time, but this isn't something I'd recommend. (1 viewing, 4/13/2023)
A few things hold this movie back for me. There are some subplots that seem completely unnecessary and don't fit the rest of the story. I also feel like the story lacks focus with it's themes, partly due to the unnecessary subplots. And when we find out details about the victim late in the movie, I strongly disliked where it went with that.
It's not the worst thing you can do with your time, but this isn't something I'd recommend. (1 viewing, 4/13/2023)
I wish this movie had treated me better
TheLazyGirlWrld11 April 2023
This movie really was a whole lot of nothing. It talked about any and every thing. Police killings, treatment of women in the workplace, treatment of black men in the workplace, marriage, cheating, lying. There's probably something else I'm missing.
So what was the point? Hypocrisy. At least that's what I got from it.
But let's be honest, this movie could have been a LOT shorter. A smooth 75 minutes would have been more than enough. The big reveal honestly had me going to see who exactly had written and directed this movie. And then I was shocked. I didn't mind watching it once but I definitely wouldn't sit through it again.
So what was the point? Hypocrisy. At least that's what I got from it.
But let's be honest, this movie could have been a LOT shorter. A smooth 75 minutes would have been more than enough. The big reveal honestly had me going to see who exactly had written and directed this movie. And then I was shocked. I didn't mind watching it once but I definitely wouldn't sit through it again.
the title says it all
piraterider7 April 2023
The title says it all
this film is a lot of nothing not alot happens.
James and Vanessa are ostensibly the perfect married couple; beautiful, successful, and smart. Their lives spiral out of control when they decide to seek justice against a neighbor they saw commit a crime on the evening news
in todays socioty no one wants to get involved with there neighbours and you certaintly would not be kidnapping a police officer who happens to appears on the news.
Some reviewer seems to think this tackles police killings of unarmed victims in the black community umm no not really this relates in no way to it why do you think this because all the actors are black except one the police officer ??
James and Vanessa are ostensibly the perfect married couple; beautiful, successful, and smart. Their lives spiral out of control when they decide to seek justice against a neighbor they saw commit a crime on the evening news
in todays socioty no one wants to get involved with there neighbours and you certaintly would not be kidnapping a police officer who happens to appears on the news.
Some reviewer seems to think this tackles police killings of unarmed victims in the black community umm no not really this relates in no way to it why do you think this because all the actors are black except one the police officer ??
This movie is so bad I created an account to give it 1 star
righty-3671212 April 2023
I think that when people ask for representation they are asking for that all around. Within the first 15 min you can tell that this is not a story written from the perspective of the characters. It is so hard to make it to the 30 min mark. From the dialogue to the acting.
If you are in the community I would not watch this movie. You will likely be offended. If you are a woman in the community. You are going to be offended as soon as you see Vanessa ( Cleopatra Coleman). From her hair (she needed a BW working on that fro), to her attitude, landing on how she speaks. You can clearly see how the writers view YOU as a human. It is another portrayal of you being seen as hysterical, illogical, jealous, unhinged, and weak. Topped off with submission in the face of the men that control the money.
Then there is James (Y'lan Noel). He is not in control and whines in lieu of taking control when his wife begins to come unhinged. She is clearly upset about a circumstance that involves their neighbor. He also allows her to take over the situation until it gets to the point of no return.
I was done and could no longer continue when Jamal (Shamier Anderson) comes into the picture. The first offensive remark is around 45 min when he is at the door with his pregnant wife/gf. His brother James and his sister in law are deciding if they should open the door. James confesses to Vanessa that he has given his brother a key. Her response, " What kind of emergency? In case we run out of rolling papers."
I made it to the 50 min mark before it was too much to continue. I had a feeling who would write a woman of the community this way. I had to take a look and was laughing...like, of course. I looked at the director. If you know him...you know him. I was like... of course.
If you like Insecure, White Famous or Stowaway, save yourself the time. Do not watch. You are going to be upset at how these actors have been reduced.
If you are in the community I would not watch this movie. You will likely be offended. If you are a woman in the community. You are going to be offended as soon as you see Vanessa ( Cleopatra Coleman). From her hair (she needed a BW working on that fro), to her attitude, landing on how she speaks. You can clearly see how the writers view YOU as a human. It is another portrayal of you being seen as hysterical, illogical, jealous, unhinged, and weak. Topped off with submission in the face of the men that control the money.
Then there is James (Y'lan Noel). He is not in control and whines in lieu of taking control when his wife begins to come unhinged. She is clearly upset about a circumstance that involves their neighbor. He also allows her to take over the situation until it gets to the point of no return.
I was done and could no longer continue when Jamal (Shamier Anderson) comes into the picture. The first offensive remark is around 45 min when he is at the door with his pregnant wife/gf. His brother James and his sister in law are deciding if they should open the door. James confesses to Vanessa that he has given his brother a key. Her response, " What kind of emergency? In case we run out of rolling papers."
I made it to the 50 min mark before it was too much to continue. I had a feeling who would write a woman of the community this way. I had to take a look and was laughing...like, of course. I looked at the director. If you know him...you know him. I was like... of course.
If you like Insecure, White Famous or Stowaway, save yourself the time. Do not watch. You are going to be upset at how these actors have been reduced.
Unrealistic and ridiculous
whocares-9623730 April 2023
This was a heaping pile of stereotypical nonsense that promotes hate and prejudice.
The movie pretends to portray sophistication and refined class, but devolves to socioeconomic emotional ignorance, driven by the writers bias and bigoted viewpoint.
Watching this movie was just a painful journey of nothingness, really a lot of nothing!
They would have been best suited to portray the wife as bipolar off her meds or some other thing to justify the irrational illogical behavior, but the writing pushed a terrible agenda.
The irony is that the fact the main house is like a mansion, and the next door neighbors house is a shack complete with half eaten food on plates laying around, beer bottles strewn about, late notices lying all around, a laptop open and queued to play porn, and a smoke detector that needed a battery.
Again it just added to the far-fetched fantasy of ridiculousness this movie is.
Steer clear of this hate provoking garbage!
The movie pretends to portray sophistication and refined class, but devolves to socioeconomic emotional ignorance, driven by the writers bias and bigoted viewpoint.
Watching this movie was just a painful journey of nothingness, really a lot of nothing!
They would have been best suited to portray the wife as bipolar off her meds or some other thing to justify the irrational illogical behavior, but the writing pushed a terrible agenda.
The irony is that the fact the main house is like a mansion, and the next door neighbors house is a shack complete with half eaten food on plates laying around, beer bottles strewn about, late notices lying all around, a laptop open and queued to play porn, and a smoke detector that needed a battery.
Again it just added to the far-fetched fantasy of ridiculousness this movie is.
Steer clear of this hate provoking garbage!
A lot of nothing that gave nothing
cynthiaburton-439595 May 2023
Warning: Spoilers
Do not waste your time to watch this movie. It illustrated Black people in the poorest light ever as if we were just plain savages. The wife I wanted to slap holistically because she dragged everybody into her own narrative and calls nothing but a catastrophic failure for everybody. She should've never took the man at gunpoint to question him that was not her job or position. She should've kept her distance, minded her business, and let the justice system do what they needed to do. I'm thoroughly confused on the movie, but the only ironic thing that went on with this movie is the normal narrative of a cop killing a black child is up that it was a white child, so the question becomes do we still have the same passion for the crime at that point. Killing a child or killing an innocent person, regardless of their skin color is wrong so I'm hoping that's the only thing that people took away from this stupid movie. Don't waste your time.
Just don't waste your time watching this!
zahisami189 July 2023
Seriously, don't spend your time on this movie!
Boring, pointless, poor writing, bad ending, and filled with hate! Even if you skip the most of the movie, you won't miss a thing! Literally a lot of nothing!
The story telling was poor and tedious! You need to force yourself to focus and listen to the rest of the conversation in every single conversation after the first few sentences! It gets aimless and dull, and you just don't care; it's not even that much related to the story! None of the characters are interesting! Also, the acting is not that good! So, it's not much to this movie! Just save yourself some time!!!
Boring, pointless, poor writing, bad ending, and filled with hate! Even if you skip the most of the movie, you won't miss a thing! Literally a lot of nothing!
The story telling was poor and tedious! You need to force yourself to focus and listen to the rest of the conversation in every single conversation after the first few sentences! It gets aimless and dull, and you just don't care; it's not even that much related to the story! None of the characters are interesting! Also, the acting is not that good! So, it's not much to this movie! Just save yourself some time!!!
A hard drama with comedic-level misunderstandings
joker-419 March 2022
A Lot Of Nothing begins with a shot. Vanessa watches the news. Her anger erupts while her husband, James, weary of the world's temperament, and perhaps with his wife's as well, seeks to deflect. But Vanessa wants - demands - that this time something has to be done. Will a Facebook post heavy with MLK quotes settle the matter? Or should an act of violence beget a violent reciprocation?
The first 17 minutes presents a single-shot, two-man performance about confronting, channeling, and ultimately grounding that rage. The remainder of the run time runs through a series of more complicated actions, most of which are heavy with cinematic posturing. However, the entire play hits with modern-day truths that are equally complex.
Written and directed by Mo McRae, A Lot of Nothing shows that James and Vanessa are not entirely wrong. Yet, neither are they completely right. James enjoys his position of power and can masterfully either feign ignorance or fume in silence. Vanessa is all righteous fury until her passions move too quickly and too far out in a place beyond where James' smooth-talking counseling can reach. Brian, the cop, hits all the right cliches, until he doesn't. The movie follows similarly.
Vanessa takes matters into her own hands and confronts Brian. Tensions, of course, escalate. As do actions. Maybe a little too quickly. Perhaps even unbelievably.
A Lot of Nothing is a hard drama with comedic-level misunderstandings about the racial divides and general mistrust that regrettably continue to exist. Mo McRae's movie starts the conversation, asks critical questions, but cannot seem to come up with a satisfying end note.
The first 17 minutes presents a single-shot, two-man performance about confronting, channeling, and ultimately grounding that rage. The remainder of the run time runs through a series of more complicated actions, most of which are heavy with cinematic posturing. However, the entire play hits with modern-day truths that are equally complex.
Written and directed by Mo McRae, A Lot of Nothing shows that James and Vanessa are not entirely wrong. Yet, neither are they completely right. James enjoys his position of power and can masterfully either feign ignorance or fume in silence. Vanessa is all righteous fury until her passions move too quickly and too far out in a place beyond where James' smooth-talking counseling can reach. Brian, the cop, hits all the right cliches, until he doesn't. The movie follows similarly.
Vanessa takes matters into her own hands and confronts Brian. Tensions, of course, escalate. As do actions. Maybe a little too quickly. Perhaps even unbelievably.
A Lot of Nothing is a hard drama with comedic-level misunderstandings about the racial divides and general mistrust that regrettably continue to exist. Mo McRae's movie starts the conversation, asks critical questions, but cannot seem to come up with a satisfying end note.
I LIKED this movie (read below)
sarine_voltage27 April 2024
Don't listen to the haters, I don't know where they're coming from (hate, probably, ha ha), but it's not right or fair to give this movie anything below a 6. It may not be a 10, but it's no 4.4 either. I'd say it actually deserves a solid 7, maybe even a 7.5 (that is, if this site permitted raters to use half-stars, which it doesn't, by the way, so I'm really curious as to who determines what these ratings are in the first place and how is it figured/tallied, because where does a ".4" even come from if the raters can only utilize whole numbers from 1-10?) So I put 10 stars up in an effort to get the balance right.
I'd say this is a pretty funny and entertaining dark comedy that hits on present day social concerns and prejudices, along with how people view and handle them, in a dark, kind of twisted, many times ironic and rather comic manner. And it feels pretty real.
Both the cast and the characters they played were great; the dialogue, expressions, and reactions were very true-to-life, I found myself thinking 'Wait, I know these people, don't I?' I especially liked Jamal, he was just spot on with it, his eyes and the looks he'd give... everyone, actually, was seriously on, Jamal just seemed to shine really bright.
The only gentle critique I could even give is that it did jump around a bit, but then that kind of seemed to go hand in hand with the story and characters anyways, so there you have it. I really liked that even though some of the issues being dealt with were intense (e.g., killer cops, racism, adultery), the movie didn't go the ho-hum blood and gore route, but was put together intelligently in a way to have it hit home without the need to smear the viewers' faces in a bunch of hard-core action hype, and thus, making it actually more impactual and driving the point(s) home hard amidst the humour. Check it out.
I'd say this is a pretty funny and entertaining dark comedy that hits on present day social concerns and prejudices, along with how people view and handle them, in a dark, kind of twisted, many times ironic and rather comic manner. And it feels pretty real.
Both the cast and the characters they played were great; the dialogue, expressions, and reactions were very true-to-life, I found myself thinking 'Wait, I know these people, don't I?' I especially liked Jamal, he was just spot on with it, his eyes and the looks he'd give... everyone, actually, was seriously on, Jamal just seemed to shine really bright.
The only gentle critique I could even give is that it did jump around a bit, but then that kind of seemed to go hand in hand with the story and characters anyways, so there you have it. I really liked that even though some of the issues being dealt with were intense (e.g., killer cops, racism, adultery), the movie didn't go the ho-hum blood and gore route, but was put together intelligently in a way to have it hit home without the need to smear the viewers' faces in a bunch of hard-core action hype, and thus, making it actually more impactual and driving the point(s) home hard amidst the humour. Check it out.
Comedy of Errors with a Point
kirstenholmes-237168 April 2023
I'm not sure where all those one-star ratings come from. This is an entertaining comedy of errors with an important premise. It has its flaws, but it's well-handled and well worth a little forgiveness. The acting is mostly competent, if not for the male lead. The production value is right up there, and the screenplay does a good job of carrying a number of different approaches to its political premise. I hope the director keeps evolving. I'll certainly watch more from him if he keeps churning them out.
My expectations were low given the ratings, but it's definitely not worthy of those one-star reviews.
My expectations were low given the ratings, but it's definitely not worthy of those one-star reviews.
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