Film Review: Brian Banks Thrives In A Broken Justice System
Brian Banks teeters between devastating and completely hopeful. The U.S.A has the largest prison population in the world, with its highest percentages of prisoners being black or of Hispanic ethnicity. It is for this reason that many people call our prison system, and the justice pipeline that fills penitentiaries, the “new slave” system. Written by Dough Atchinson and directed by Tom Shadyac, Brian Banks explains why.
Locked up for six years for a sexual crime he did not commit, Brian Banks’ life is seemingly ruined. He cannot get a job, go near parks or schools without getting arrested, and has to wear a monitor on his ankle at all times. Locked away when he was 16, his promising career, in football, vanished thanks to misguidances from a lawyer, a DA that never requested a crime scene investigation or noted DNA evidence, and his socio-economic status. He was a black boy whose mother had to sell her home to get him a lawyer, who gave HIM THE WORST ADVICE. Yet, when you are of color and poverty, even plea deals are endangering. It is as if history can’t stop chaining you. Enter The California Innocence Project to help Brian remove himself, after his years in jail, from a Sex Offenders List.
BRIAN BANKS | Official Trailer
Greg Kinnear plays Justin Brooks; a lawyer trying to regain optimism after seeing so many innocent people remain locked up, despite overwhelming proof of their innocence. Remember, America is one of the only nations that privatizes its prison system and, in turn, its judicial one. In some prisons, a bed is worth 60 to 80 dollars a night; treating the notion of an “inmate” like a hotel guest that happened to book a lowly suite in hell. This feels especially true in scenes where you see Brian locked up for two months in solitary confinement for defending himself against a threatening, fellow prisoner. Being 17 and locked up in a dark room for 60 days, would, honestly, break me. It is one of the roughest scenes because, by all means, Brian loses his mind.
Aldis Hodge is AMAZING as Brian Banks. He is regal under spiritual fire, and he makes Brian a figure of strength. You can survive the worst to become your own best. Again, I cannot say that, most of us, would walk away defending our dignity even more after suffering the injustices of Brian. Such moves break you because it hurts to lose when you did nothing wrong, and it devastates your soul to know your nation’s judicial system helped wrong you. Trust me, by the end of this film, you will have asked yourself, “Did they want to lock him up?”
Brian’s case goes by so quickly and unfairly, it is hard to believe that there was ever an instance where his innocence and life were considered or protected. Thus, Brooks and Banks relationship, or Kinnear and Hodge, become the lifeline of the film. They are the Davids to the “Justice System Goliath,” and as they believe in each other, the viewer grows to believe in them. Frankly, I loved this film because Brian Banks teaches you how wonderful a SOUL can be. Yet, I was absolutely torn into tears because this movie show you that being a good person doesn’t protect your from your own country’s issues. Brian Banks heart sought him through, but the California/U.S. judicial system failed him. Brian Banks Comes Out In Theater on August 9.
