Nnamdi Asomugha Archives

Review: ‘The Knife’ (2024), starring Nnamdi Asomugha, Aja Naomi King, Melissa Leo, Amari Price and Aiden Price

June 10, 2024

by Carla Hay

Nnamdi Asomugha in “The Knife” (Photo courtesy of iAm21 Entertainment)

“The Knife” (2024)

Directed by Nnamdi Asomugha

Culture Representation: Taking place in an unnamed U.S. city, the dramatic film “The Knife” features a racially diverse cast of characters (African American, white and a few Latin people) representing the working-class and middle-class.

Culture Clash: A black man, his wife and their two daughters are questioned by a white police detective after a white female intruder is found unconscious in the family’s home.

Culture Audience: “The Knife” will appeal primarily to people who are interested in provocative dramas that explore racial issues and legal issues in police investigations.

“The Knife” is a cautionary tale of what not to do at a crime scene and during witness interviews. This uneven but well-acted and suspenseful drama raises challenging questions about legal rights and police procedures. If people know about the movie’s synopsis but haven’t seen the movie, then it might be easy for people to immediately assume that it’s a pro-Black Lives Matter film, where black victims do nothing wrong but become crime suspects, while racist people are the only ones to blame.

However, “The Knife” avoids a lot of stereotypes that scripted movies typically have about how race plays a role in how people are policed and investigated in the United States and elsewhere. In “The Knife” (which has an ending that is sure to be divisive or will at least spark conversational debates), the characters on both sides of a police interrogation are not completely innocent. Almost all of the adults in this situation do certain things wrong and make the situation worse.

“The Knife” is the feature-film directorial debut of former NFL player-turned-actor Nnamdi Asomugha, who not only stars in “The Knife” but he is also one of the movie’s producers. Asomugha co-wrote “The Knife” screenplay with Mark Duplass. “The Knife” had its world premiere at the 2024 Tribeca Festival. The movie takes place in an unnamed U.S. city in the 2020s, but the issues brought forth in the film are perennial issues.

“The Knife” takes place during one night in the lives of a middle-class black American family who will be seriously affected by a series of choices. The movie begins with voiceover narration from the family patriarch Christian, nicknamed Chris (played by Asomugha) saying: “When I was a kid, my grandma use to say life is full of choices. And choices lead to consequences.” Chris then goes on to say that his grandmother also told him that people have to live with the consequences of their choices, whether they like it or not.

Chris (who is 38 years old) and his wife Alexandra, nicknamed Alex (played by Aja Naomi King), are examples of pursuing the American Dream. Chris is a construction worker. Alex is a teacher of second-grade students. Chris and Alex are happily married home owners who have recently moved into a house that Chris is in the process of renovating.

Early on in the movie, Alex mentions that she’s not very thrilled that the house is in a crime-ridden neighborhood, but she supports Chris’ goal to make home improvements, presumably so they can “flip” the house later and sell it at a profit. The family has moved into the house so recently, some moving boxes are still seen inside the house.

Chris and Alex have three daughters. Eldest child Kendra (played by Amari Price) is about 11 or 12 years old. Middle child Ryley (played by Aiden Price) is about 8 or 9 years old. Youngest child Ashley (played by Aranaya Frasier) is an infant. Kendra and Ryley are intelligent and obedient children.

Between the recent move and taking care of young children, Chris and Alex are exhausted. An early scene in the film shows Chris and Alex in bed, going back and forth in changing their minds on whether or not they want to have sex that night. Ultimately, they decide they’re just too tired.

At 1:38 a.m., Chris is woken up by the sound of someone inside the house. He gets up cautiously, looks around the house, and sees a disheveled-looking, gray-haired white woman in the kitchen. She is at the sink, and her back is turned toward Chris. Later, when police arrive, it’s revealed that this woman’s name is Mary Duvall Thompson (played by Lucinda Jenney), and she is 53 years old.

Chris is naturally startled by seeing this intruder in his home. Chris sternly tells her that she’s in the wrong house and she needs to leave. The intruder doesn’t say anything and doesn’t turn around. She seems to be in a dazed stupor.

Chris’ anger then turns to concern when he sees that this intruder is either mentally unwell or under the influence of an unknown substance. He asks her if she needs help getting home. She still says nothing, but she turns around to face Chris.

The next scene shows Alex being woken up by the sounds of a scuffle happening in the kitchen. When Alex goes to the kitchen, she’s shocked to see Chris standing over the intruder, who is unconscious on the floor. A small pocket knife is lying next to Mary, who is bleeding.

Chris tells Alex that this female stranger is an intruder. Chris says he confronted this intruder, but he can’t remember all the details of why she’s now bleeding on their kitchen floor. Alex asks if the knife belongs to the woman. Chris says no. Alex does a quick check of the woman’s pulse and sees that she’s still alive.

Chris seems to be in complete shock, but he calls 911 to frantically report that a female intruder has been hurt in his home, and he gives the address. He hangs up before giving more details. Alex still has her wits about her to remind Chris that he will automatically be a suspect, unless they both get their stories straight about what happened.

Meanwhile, Kendra and Ryley have heard the commotion and arrive in the kitchen. Chris and Alex tell Kendra and Ryley that the woman on the floor is a stranger who intruded into their home and who attacked Chris, but he acted in self-defense. Kendra and Ryley are confused and upset, but their parents assure them that Chris won’t get in trouble if the police believe that Chris was defending himself against the intruder.

Alex tells Chris that based on what it looks like, Chris acted in self-defense of an intruder who attacked Chris first, and the intruder got injured during the struggle when she fell down and hit her head on the floor. That’s the story they decide to tell the police. They also decide to tell the truth that Alex, Kendra and Ryley did not witness the break-in and attack and only saw the intruder for the first time when she was unconscious on the floor.

However, two major mistakes are made that have serious repercussions. First, Alex and Chris decide to lie to the police and say that the knife belongs to the intruder, who used the knife to lunge at Chris. Second, just as the police arrive and before the police go in the house, Alex seems to panic and spontaneously picks up the knife with her bare hands and places it under Mary’s right hand, to make it look like Mary had been holding the knife before losing consciousness.

Chris has seen Alex commit this crime of tampering with the evidence, and he’s understandably annoyed and worried about what Alex did. After the police arrive, Chris and Alex speak in hushed tones so they can’t be heard by anyone else. Chris asks Alex why she moved the knife to make it look like the intruder had been holding this weapon. Alex replies defiantly, “You’re a black man in America, Chris. I’m protecting you. That’s what I’m doing.”

Anyone with common sense who watches “The Knife” will be thinking during the entire movie: “Won’t the truth come out when the knife is tested for fingerprints?” In Alex’s rush to protect Chris from being blamed, Alex seems to have forgotten that the knife would be tested for fingerprints. Most of “The Knife” is about the investigation at the crime scene, so any issues about fingerprint proof on the knife cannot realistically be dealt with during the time period shown in the movie.

An ambulance has arrived around the same time as the police. And it’s not looking good for Mary. The medical first responders say that Mary has stopped breathing. What could have been an investigation into only a breaking-and-entering crime could possibly turn into a manslaughter investigation if Mary does not survive.

The lead investigator at the crime scene is a police detective named Frances Carlsen (played by Melissa Leo), who has a very no-nonsense, “by the book” style of working. The stereotyping and police biases are shown as soon as a cop named Officer Padilla (played by Manny Jacinto) tells Detective Carlsen that “something doesn’t feel right about this family” because the family is acting nervous. Detective Carlsen tells Officer Padilla not to jump to conclusions because anyone would be nervous under the circumstances.

Detective Carlsen has a lecturing tone in how she often tells people at the crime scene that she wants to get to the truth. However, there are obvious indications that Detective Carlsen also has a conscious or unconscious racial bias. She repeatedly refers to Mary as the “victim” without any proof that Mary is a victim. Eventually, Alex shows she’s offended when she tells Detective Carlsen that Mary should be described as an intruder, since Mary came into the home uninvited and refused to leave.

Detective Carlsen decides that Chris, Alex, Kendra and Ryley will be immediately be interviewed separately at the house, to see if all four family members tell the same or different versions of what happened. It leads to some serious legal issues regarding police interrogations of children; things that police can or cannot say or do to get witnesses to reveal the truth; and people’s civil rights in the United States when being questioned by police. The movie will make viewers think about what would’ve happened differently if the racial identities of the family and the intruder were switched.

“The Knife” also shows the reality that a lot of people are ignorant of the U.S. law that says people in the United States don’t have to answer questions from police without an attorney being there during the questioning. And if people do know that they have this right to an attorney in the United States, they often don’t exercise this right out of fear, or because they think their words won’t be used against them when questioned by law enforcement. As soon as anyone agrees to be questioned by police without an attorney present, that person can be vulnerable to improper or illegal police procedures by any police officer who doesn’t do things correctly.

Although some viewers of “The Knife” will be frustrated by the things that people do wrong in this investigation, the message that “The Knife” seems to be sending is that mistakes and bad choices can be made by police and witnesses. Too often, movies and TV shows depict investigations in a certain way that never leaves room for the reality that mistakes or bad choices can be made by everyone directly involved in the investigation. People’s emotions and biases can often cloud people’s judgments, which can lead to decisions that result in something that is definitely not justice.

Although “The Knife” succeeds overall in being an emotional and riveting drama, the movie’s screenplay could have been better, in terms of how certain evidence is handled in this investigation. A criminal defense attorney would absolutely rip apart some of the things that happen in this story. However, Asomugha gives solid direction to the movie, which uses brief flashbacks that will make viewers wonder: “Does Chris’ memory loss make him an unreliable narrator or unbelievable witness?” It’s eventually revealed in the story why Chris doesn’t remember everything that happened between him and Mary.

Asomugha, King and Leo give admirable performances in this tension-filled drama that occasionally stumbles with some cringeworthy decisions made by a few of the adult characters. “The Knife” is not a movie that will satisfy viewers who want definitive conclusions. However, the knife in this movie could be considered a symbol of how people should not make assumptions about innocence or guilt by looking at things only at face value.

Review: ‘Sylvie’s Love,’ starring Tessa Thompson and Nnamdi Asomugha

December 29, 2020

by Carla Hay

“Sylvie’s Love”

Directed by Eugene Ashe

Culture Representation: Taking place in New York City and Detroit from 1957 to the mid-1960s, the dramatic film “Sylvie’s Love” features a predominantly black cast of characters (with some white people and a few Latinos) representing the middle-class and working-class.

Culture Clash: A young woman who’s engaged to be married meets and falls in love with a jazz musician who doesn’t meet her mother’s approval because he comes from a lower social class.

Culture Audience: “Sylvie’s Love″ will appeal primarily to people who like sweeping romantic dramas reminiscent of Hollywood’s Golden Age.

Nnamdi Asomugha, Regé-Jean Page and Courtney Leonard in “Sylvie’s Love” (Photo by Nicola Goode/Amazon Studios)

“Sylvie’s Love” is a perfect movie to watch if you’re in the mood for a rollercoaster ride of a love story that’s told in the epic and lush way that romantic movies used to be made in the 1950s and early 1960s. That’s the period of time when most of “Sylvie’s Love” takes place, and it’s from the perspective of African Americans. There are expected moments of passionate romance and crushing heartbreak, but there are also social issues in the story that have to do with race, class and gender roles in society.

Written and directed by Eugene Ashe, “Sylvie’s Love” shows the romantic saga between Sylvie Johnson (played by Tessa Thompson) and Robert Holloway (played by Nnamdi Asomugha) that begins when they meet in New York City in the summer of 1957, when they’re both in the early 20s. Robert is the saxophonist in the Dickie Brewster Quartet, a semi-successful jazz group that has been gigging around the city but doesn’t have a record contract yet. Sylvie works part-time in her father’s record store, but she is expected to eventually become a wife and homemaker.

Robert first sees Sylvie through the window of Mr. Jay’s Records, a record store owned by her father (played by Lance Reddick), who’s only identified as Mr. Jay in the movie. She’s watching TV while sitting behind the counter at the store. Robert looks at Sylvie in the way that viewers can tell that if it’s not love at first sight, then it’s at least major attraction at first sight. Robert sees a Help Wanted sign in the store window, takes the sign, and uses it as an excuse to strike up a conversation with the woman behind the store counter.

Sylvie is a TV fanatic and spends as much time watching TV as she can. And so, when Robert walks into the store, she doesn’t pay much attention to him. He browses through some records and asks her a question that she barely answers because she’s focused on watching TV. When he goes to the counter with an album, he asks how much the record would cost if he got an employee discount. He holds up the Help Wanted sign to indicate that he wants to work there.

She tells him that the store actually doesn’t need to hire any new employees. Sylvie explains that her image-conscious mother wanted the sign in the store so that if people who knew the Johnson family saw Sylvie working in the store, they wouldn’t think that the family was using Sylvie as free labor and that the family could afford to hire new employees. It’s the first indication that Sylvie’s mother Eunice Johnson (played by Erica Gimpel) is very class-conscious and obsessed with appearances. Not surprisingly, Eunice runs a finishing school for girls to teach them decorum and etiquette so they will be “proper” ladies for society.

Even though Sylvie told Robert that the store didn’t need to hire any new employees, when Sylvie’s father meets Robert, he takes a liking to the young man and hires him on the spot. Sylvie’s father tells Robert that he too was a jazz saxophonist, but he gave up his dreams of being a professional musician because of the financial obligations of taking care of a family. Robert has an easygoing, respectful manner, and it isn’t long before Sylvie is charmed by him too.

On one of Robert’s first days on the job, Sylvie accidentally locks the two of them in the store’s basement. While they wait for her father to arrive to unlock the door, they start talking about music, and she recommends that Robert get Sonny Rollins’ “Way Out West” album. Robert is impressed by how much Sylvie knows about music, but she tells him that her biggest passion is television. She says that her dream job would be to work as a TV producer.

Sylvie and Robert are showing signs that they’re very attracted to each other, but there’s one big problem: She’s engaged to another man. Sylvie proudly tells Robert that her fiancé Lacy Parker (played by Alano Miller) is the son of doctor and that she met Lacy at a cotillion. Robert doesn’t seem that impressed and he doesn’t know what a cotillion is until Sylvie explains it to him.

As time goes on, it becomes clear that this engagement to a doctor’s son is making Sylvie’s mother Eunice happier than it’s making Sylvie. Not once does Sylvie say that she’s in love with Lacy. She seems to be pressured into the marriage because Lacy is considered to be a “good catch” and Sylvie likes Lacy enough to commit to marrying him. Lacy is away traveling for a certain period of time, which is why Lacy doesn’t meet Robert, and Lacy isn’t around when Sylvie and Robert start to fall in love.

Robert tries to hide his disappointment that Sylvie is engaged, but he still invites her to see him perform with his band at a local club. Sylvie goes to the show with her cousin Mona (played by Aja Naomi King), who is also Sylvie’s best friend. Sylvie and Mona are enthralled by what they see during this performance, since the Dickie Brewster Quartet is very talented, with Robert being a standout player.

The other members of the Dickie Brewster Quartet are drummer Chico Sweetney (played by Regé-Jean Page), who is Robert’s extroverted best friend; bass player Buzz Walcott (played by Courtney Leonard), who has a somewhat goofy personality; and egotistical band leader Dickie Brewster, who is the group’s pianist and chief songwriter. Chico and Mona have an immediate flirtation, and they begin dating soon after they meet.

Sylvie has led a sheltered life and has never really experienced going to nightclubs. She’s intrigued and excited, but she also becomes acutely aware that she might not fit in with the fast party crowd that frequents the nightclub. One of the club regulars is a woman named Connie (played by Raquel Horsford), who’s about 10 years older than Sylvie.

When Connie sees Robert and Sylvie sitting at a table together and talking after the show, Connie makes it clear that she’s interested in Robert. Connie cattily tells Robert that he can hang out with her when he’s done babysitting. Connie says it loud enough for Sylvie to hear. Sylvie looks slightly embarrassed. When Robert walks Sylvie home, they kiss for the first time.

During that fateful summer, Sylvie and Robert spend more time together, and they become more attracted to each other. They have double dates with Mona and Chico. Sylvie tells Robert how much she admires his talent and encourages him in his musical endeavors. Sylvie tells Robert, “I’ve never met anyone who plays music like you do.”

Robert, who is originally from Detroit, opens up about his life and tells Sylvie that he used to work on the assembly line of an auto plant. But he decided to take a big risk and quit his job to move to New York City and try to make it as a professional musician. His mother died two years ago, and he tells Sylvie: “When my mother passed, I realized that life’s too short to waste time with things you don’t absolutely love.”

Robert and Sylvie’s budding romance hits a jealousy snag when he invites her to a party attended by a lot of his nightclub friends, which include a sassy woman named Carmen (played by Eva Longoria), who runs the boarding house where the the band members live. At the party, Sylvie sees Robert dancing with Connie and gets jealous. Sylvie leaves the party in a huff, and then Sylvie and Robert have an argument out in the street,

Robert tells Sylvie that she doesn’t have a right to judge about “cheating” since she’s engaged to another man. Sylvie says that since Robert invited her to the party, she wanted to at least feel like she was special. Then they both admit that they want to feel special to each other. And not long after that, Sylvie and Robert become lovers.

During the time that Robert and Sylvie begin dating, things start to progress in Robert’s career. A wealthy French socialite named Countess Genevieve (played by Jemima Kirke), who also goes by the name Gertie, has taken an interest in the Dickie Brewster Quartet. She recommends them for gigs in Paris, invests money in buying them new clothes, and eventually becomes the group’s official manager.

Just as Robert and Sylvie’s romance is heating up, it comes to an abrupt halt when the Dickie Brewster Quartet gets offered a series of performances in Paris. Robert invites Sylvie to go with him to Paris, but Sylvie decides that it’s best if she and Robert go their separate ways permanently. (This isn’t spoiler information since it’s in the movie’s trailer.)

And there’s another reason for why Sylvie breaks up with Robert, but she keeps it a secret from many people, including Robert. She doesn’t see him or communicate with him again until 1962, five years after they broke up, when she unexpectedly finds out that Robert is back in New York City to record an album. Sylvie is now married to Lacy, they have a 5-year-old daughter named Michelle (played by Lotus Plummer), and Sylvie has been working as an assistant producer for a TV series called “The Lucy Wolper Cooking Show.”

Sylvie loves her job, and her producer boss Kate Spencer (played by Ryan Michelle Bathe) is a supportive mentor to Sylvie. The movie’s comic relief is provided by the cooking show’s host Lucy Wolper (played by Wendi McLendon-Covey), who’s prim and polished on TV, but in real life she has a bawdy sense of humor. Even though Sylvie is very happy in her career, her marriage is having problems because the job requires her to work long hours, which irritates Sylvie’s husband Lacy, who is a sales executive for an unnamed company.

Lacy doesn’t have a problem with Sylvie working outside the home, as long as it doesn’t affect her ability to have meals ready for him at his expected time, or interfere with plans he makes when he wants Sylvie to entertain clients in their home or go to his work-related events. And so, when Sylvie sees Robert again, it triggers thoughts and feelings about their romance. Meanwhile, Robert has been growing tired of being creatively stifled by Dickie, so he contemplates an offer from record company executive Sid Shuur (played by John Magaro) to launch a solo career as a musician/songwriter.

What happens in the story at times veers into melodrama, but it’s entirely realistic. The beauty of this movie is in the credible and almost poetic way that Thompson and Asomugha portray the love between Sylvie and Robert. It’s an emotionally difficult journey fraught with uncertainty over the future and circumstances that can keep them apart. But it’s also a story of emotional fulfillment and chasing happiness where you can find it.

And even though the romance in “Sylvie’s Love” began out of infidelity, writer/director Ashe doesn’t make this a cheap and tawdry story. Rather, the movie demonstrates the hard choices that people sometimes have to make when they fall in love with the right person at the wrong time. Viewers will feel invested in finding out that happens to Sylvie and Robert because these characters are relatable on many levels.

Everything about “Sylvie’s Love” is a glorious ode to the era in which the movie take place. The direction, music, cinematography, costume design and production design are among the technical elements that fit this movie like a snug, elbow-length satin glove. However, you don’t have to be a retro movie fan to enjoy “Sylvie’s Love,” which has timeless themes about love and self-identity. It’s not a perfect film, but it perfectly captures the emotions of a complicated romance.

Amazon Prime Video premiered “Sylvie’s Love” on December 23, 2020.