Project Power | Henry Joost & Ariel Schulman | August 14, 2020
With Project Power, directors Henry Joost & Ariel Schulman give the superhero genre a bit of a neat twist. In a near-future New Orleans, a new drug is being pushed by a dealer named Biggie (Rodrigo Santoro) called Power. It’s a pill that when consumed by a person will unlock a mysterious unique power, giving them superhero-like abilities for five minutes. The catch is that you won’t know what it is until you consume it and it can be potentially fatal.
The drug is being sold by, among others, teenager Robin (Dominique Fishback), who sells to NOPD officer Frank Shaver (Joseph Gordon-Levitt; 7500) who uses it to level the playing field against criminals who now have an unfair edge with the drugs. Robin soon crosses paths with Art (Jamie Foxx), a man on a mission. Whose side he’s on isn’t clear, but he isn’t playing around. He has a mysterious past, one that involves his missing daughter Tracy (Kyanna Simone Simpson), which may be the key to all that has unfolded.
In what should be a fun twist on the superhero genre is one that sadly gets a bit bogged down by screenwriter Mattson Tomlin, delivering what is a fairly typical generic police-action adventure. Things feel exciting at first from the starting set-up, but what follows feels like standard fare and results in a viewing experience that does hold your attention but fails to do much else, squandering any potential that is flashed early on.
Project Power is held firmly together by the performances from its three leads, with Jamie Foxx and Gordon-Levitt bringing their A-game as you would expect. It’s Dominique Fishback’s revelatory performance that is the surprising anchor here. She is able to match both of them with a great deal of confidence, bringing energy and presence that is impressive, especially considering who she is forced to hold her own against.
While those three elevate the material presented to them, the film has absolutely no capable villain presence, toiling between a generic performance from a completely wasted Rodrigo Santoro and an equally forgettable Amy Landecker as a top figure behind Power. Outside of some heightened action sequences, Project Power doesn’t hook the audience in any new or inventive ways, not bringing the story to a place that feels as fresh and exciting as the idea deserves.
Despite some of its more generic shortcomings, Project Power holds your attention thanks to the performances of its three leads and enough action to keep things moving along in a fun, turn off your brain sort of way. I wish it brought a little bit more to the table to take it to that next level, but who knows; with it being a Netflix original, there may be another one on the way where they can give it a power boost of their own.
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