Alex Kendrick, Aspen Kennedy, B.J. Arnett, Cameron Arnett, drama, Jonathan Evans, Karen Abercrombie, Michael J. Patterson, movies, Priscilla Shirer, reviews, The Forge
September 4, 2024
by Carla Hay
Directed by Alex Kendrick
Culture Representation: Taking place in Charlotte, North Carolina, the dramatic film “The Forge” features a predominantly African American group of people (with some white people, Latin people and Asians) representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.
Culture Clash: A young adult man, who is angry over his father’s abandonment, finds purpose and meaning in his life when his boss becomes his religious mentor.
Culture Audience: “The Forge” will appeal mainly to people who can tolerate faith-based films that are preachy but well-meaning.
“The Forge” is a pleasantly formulaic faith-based drama that tends to be preachy and mundane. However, the acting is solid, and the characters are likeable in this story about a young man who finds his identity and purpose. Viewers should not expect any surprises in this movie.
“The Forge” was directed by Alex Kendrick, who co-wrote “The Forge” screenplay with his brother Stephen Kendrick. The movie takes place in Charlotte, North Carolina, but was actually filmed mostly in Albany, Georgia. “The Forge” has some unflattering clichés about African Americans in urban areas. It’s yet another movie about an “at risk” young African American man raised by a single mother because his father abandoned the family.
These tired and over-used stereotypes would be offensive if “The Forge” didn’t have a balance of positive and realistic portrayals of African Americans. The fact of the matter is that most African Americans are not criminals or addicted to drugs. Most African American fathers are not deadbeat dads. Thankfully, “The Forge” does not depict the movie’s protagonist as a criminal but as someone who feels lost and in search of a purpose in life, which is something that many people can relate to, regardless of their racial or ethnic identity.
The movie begins by showing 19-year-old Isaiah Wright (played by Aspen Kennedy) playing basketball with some of his friends. It’s soon revealed in “The Forge” that Isaiah is addicted to playing video games. Isaiah is a good guy, but he doesn’t have any direction or goals in his life since he graduated from high school a year earlier. He lives with his divorced mother Cynthia Wright (played by Priscilla Shirer), who is so bitter about the divorce from her ex-husband Darren (played by Michael J. Patterson), she doesn’t even like to talk about him. Darren hasn’t had contact with Cynthia and Isaiah for several years.
Cynthia has had enough of Isaiah living rent-free in her house and not doing anything productive with his life. One day, Cynthia tells Isaiah: “If you don’t want to go to college, that’s fine. But you’ve got to get a job.” She also tells him that his days of living rent-free in her home will soon be over. Cynthia adds sternly, “You’re not going to spend all of your graduation money on video games and sneakers.”
The trailer for “The Forge” reveals about 90% of the plot, including the way that Darren shows up in Isaiah’s life after not seeing or communicating with Isaiah for years. Isaiah gets a warehouse job at Moore Fitness, a successful company that makes about 205 different fitness products. Moore Fitness is facing stiff competition from a company called Slayer Sports, which is aggressively going after an exclusive contract with GymFit, the biggest client of Moore Fitness. If Moore Fitness loses GymFit as a client, then Moore Fitness will be in serious danger of going out of business. You can almost do a countdown to the “race against time” scene that you know is coming as soon as the contract deadline is mentioned in the movie.
Isaiah is personally hired by Moore Fitness owner/founder Joshua Moore (played by Cameron Moore), who has a chance encounter with Isaiah when Isaiah is in an office reception area to fill out a job application. Before Joshua hires Isaiah, he takes Isaiah out to lunch and tells Isaiah that Isaiah must answer three questions in order to be hired at Moore Fitness: “In what ways do you want to grow in the next year?” “What kind of man do you want to be?” “What do you want people to think when they see you coming?”
Joshua is happily married to Janelle Moore (played by B.J. Arnett, Cameron Arnett’s real-life wife), who is the company’s human resources manager. It should come as no surprise that Joshua and Janelle have a tragedy from their past which explains why Joshua has taken such a keen interest in Isaiah. You know where all of this is going, of course.
Joshua becomes a mentor/father figure to Isaiah, who learns the value of hard work and personal integrity on the job and under Joshua’s guidance. Isaiah befriends some Moore Fitness employees who are nice but have generic personalities and don’t get enough screen time to be fully developed characters. Joshua also leads an all-male Christian group called The Forge, which has prayer circles on a regular basis. The Forge meets at a local church, where church employee Jonathan (played by Jonathan Evans) is also part of The Forge. Isaiah’s addiction to playing video games is handled in an entirely predictable manner after he becomes a responsible adult.
“The Forge” is a very patriarchal movie that tries to give meaningful screen time to Cynthia, who works at a hair salon, which has its own prayer group that consists entirely of women. One of the outspoken people in the salon’s prayer group is Miss Clara Williams (played by Karen Abercrombie), who is somewhat of a sitcom-ish stereotype of an elderly woman who says whatever is on her mind because she’s at a point in her life where she doesn’t really care what other people think of her. The scenes of Cynthia at her job are not pointless, but they don’t have as much impact as the scenes with Isaiah and his relationship with Joshua.
Some of the scenes in “The Forge” are very corny, while other scenes are very realistic. It’s a mixed bag of a movie that has its heart in the right place. Skip watching “The Forge” if you don’t want to hear religious lectures in a movie. But if you tolerate or like these types of movies, then “The Forge” has enough to offer that is familiar and entertaining.
Affirm Films released “The Forge” in U.S. cinemas on September 23, 2024.