‘They Cloned Tyrone’: Stranger Things Have Happened in the Hood …
“They Cloned Tyrone” is now streaming on Netflix.
(Teyonah Parris as Yo-Yo, Jamie Foxx (Producer) as Slick Charles, John Boyega as Fontaine. | Parrish Lewis via Netflix)
The works of Boots Riley meet the mystery of “Stranger Things” in the new Netflix film “They Cloned Tyrone.” Starring John Boyega, Teyonah Parris and Jamie Foxx, it’s a hilarious and poignant film that takes influence from 70s Blaxploitation films and modern day science fiction to tell a story about control, free will, and what it means to truly be yourself.
This film follows Fontaine, a drug dealer that gets embroiled in a government conspiracy involving fried chicken, perm cream, music and cloning. He then falls into an uneasy alliance with a pimp and one of the pimp’s consorts in order to discover the truth of what is happening to his city.
The performances in this film range the gamut from hilarious to stoic, with Parris stealing the show in every scene she is in, as well as Foxx as her foil and pimp, making it more tragic that Parris feels very underdeveloped in her current role as Monica Rambeau in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Boyega shines as Fontaine, being both stoic yet loveable as he channels his inner Moses from his breakout role in “Attack the Block.”
The aesthetics of the film are also something I really need to gush over due to their creative nature. The license plates never give a location or state, only saying that they live in “a swell place.” The chicken chain restaurant they eat at is called “God Damn Fried Chicken,” and the cars they drive and the clothes they wear are 70s inspired, yet still modern due to many scenes of people with cell phones. These small anachronisms play a larger part in the film as just like in the works of Boots Riley, there is a massive sense of magical realism in play.
This film is a g*dd*mn fun time with biting satire, fun action and hilarious one liners to rival the likes of “Black Dynamite.” Netflix has a massive hit on their hands here and this is a film that deserves to be seen.
5 clones out of 5. “They Cloned Tyrone” is now streaming on Netflix.
Zipporah Pruitt, (she/her) is an L.A. homegrown journalist, who covers entertainment and culture. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram: @zippzapps.
Edited by Nykeya Woods