Are you craving more urban sci-fi social commentary after binging “I’m a Virgo” on Amazon Prime Video?
You might want to check out the twisty new original movie called “They Cloned Tyrone,” which is now streaming on Netflix.
The story is set in a retrofuturistic neighborhood called The Glen and follows hustling drug dealer Fontaine (John Boyega), eccentric pimp Slick Charles (Jamie Foxx) and defiant sex worker Yo-Yo (Teyonah Parris). When Slick watches Fontaine get shot to death by a rival drug dealer, he’s amazed to see Fontaine miraculously return the next day with no recollection of his own demise. This inspires the trio to investigate a government cloning conspiracy.
It’s great to see Foxx back after disappearing from view with a mysterious illness. May his light shine in this world for many years to come as Hollywood’s most versatile talent, from standup comedy to celebrity impressions, from TV sitcoms to chart-topping records — and of course, acclaimed movies like “Collateral” (2004), “Ray” (2004), “Dreamgirls” (2006), “Django Unchained” (2012), “Baby Driver” (2017), “Just Mercy” (2019) and “Soul” (2020).
In “They Cloned Tyrone,” Foxx provides cackling comic relief while sporting pimp attire to rival Eddie Murphy’s “Dolemite is My Name” (2019), while Parris stands up for herself with defiant sex-worker speeches. Parris is always on the cutting edge in selecting roles from Justin Simien’s “Dear White People” (2014) to Spike Lee’s “Chi-Raq” (2015) to Barry Jenkins’ “If Beale Street Could Talk” (2018). So if you want to see where Hollywood is headed, just follow her path.
Boyega has the trickiest part, projecting grief over his brother’s death, concern over his reclusive mother and bewilderment at the cloning conspiracy that consumes him. Wearing grills on his teeth, he proves he’s more than Finn from the “Star Wars” sequels (2015-2019), working with the top filmmakers of our time in Kathryn Bigelow’s “Detroit” (2017), Steve McQueen’s “Small Axe” (2020) and Gina Prince-Bythewood’s “The Woman King” (2022).
This time, it’s first-time feature filmmaker Juel Taylor, who films in Atlanta and co-writes with Tony Rettenmaier. The script was optioned from The Black List of best unproduced screenplays in 2019, and it’s easy to see why. It’s brimming with creative imagination, Tuskegee social commentary and loving homages to everything from “Nancy Drew” novels to 1970s Blaxploitation films like “Shaft” (1971), “Super Fly” (1972) and “Foxy Brown” (1974).
At times, the mystery can be hard to follow, rolling out its clues in confusing fashion for the first 30 minutes. In that way, it’s more like a puzzling “The Big Sleep” (1946) than a page-turning “Chinatown” (1974). If you can stick with it, it really picks up in the second half with a preacher cameo by David Alan Grier (“In Living Color”) and a key monologue by Kiefer Sutherland (“24”), who delivers villainous exposition that finally explains what’s going on.
In the end, “They Cloned Tyrone” isn’t anything we haven’t seen before, but it will likely win over genre fans of Don Siegel’s “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” (1956), Jordan Peele’s “Us” (2019) or Boots Riley’s “Sorry to Bother You” (2018), even if it never quite rises to the Oscar caliber of a masterpiece like “Get Out” (2017). I actually wish that I had seen “Tyrone” before reviewing “I’m a Virgo,” because it’s hard to match a visionary as wild as Boots Riley.
