They Cloned Tyrone Review: A Movie With Big Ambitions That Doesn't Quite Come Together
The alchemy of mixing genres together is not an exact science — there's no recipe a filmmaker can follow when determining how to bring different tonal components together to create a new, cohesive point of view. When done well, however, it can bring something altogether unique to cinema, a movie that is arguably stronger than the elements the writer and director pull from. When it fails, however, it often fails hard — the potential of what it could have been standing in stark contrast to what we see on-screen. Netflix's "They Cloned Tyrone" is a mash-up that quivers between working and not and, sadly, by the end, wobbles into the "not working" camp.
The movie takes place in a neighborhood called the Glen, a place with more than a few abandoned buildings where people have what feels like a forced routine to their life — getting their hair done, going to church, eating at the fried chicken place, and getting scratch-offs at the local store. It centers on Fontaine (John Boyega), a drug dealer who starts off the film tracking down payment from the bombastic pimp Slick Charles (Jamie Foxx) and dealing with a rival moving in on his territory.
Something unexpected happens to Fontaine, however, and he, Slick Charles, and "Nancy Drew" enthusiast/sex worker Yo-Yo (Teyonah Parris) uncover a secret elevator that takes them to a labyrinthian retro-futuristic laboratory underneath their neighborhood that, among other things, has clones of Fontaine. "They Cloned Tyrone" spirals from there, revealing that the people living in the Glen have been tested on by the Government for decades, reduced to mere experiments for an ambiguous "greater good." The story is satirical but also a pulpy mystery and, at times, a thriller. It's an ambitious and worthy story to explore, but all of the elements thrown into the movie sadly don't come together to deliver a cohesive tone, and the movie is hurt because of it.
A mash of genres that doesn't quite mesh
The Glen — with enigmatic license plates and streets named Lethe Ave. — is purposefully ambiguous as to where it is in the U.S., giving the neighborhood an overlay of surrealism that makes the story feel more like a parable than something taking place in the real world.
The time period is also a juxtaposition of different eras, with iPhones mixed in with '70s decor and, in the evil underground government lab, a retrofuturistic flair that evokes what people in the '60s thought the future would look like.
The conceit of presenting this smorgasbord of time periods and genres is an intriguing one, and something I'm glad to see attempted in a feature film. There are also moments where it works — the contrast of the sleek grey, futuristic elevator opening up in the unlikeliest of places, for example, plays well. Unfortunately, moments like this are the exception rather than the rule, and the movie struggles to deliver on its vision.
The trailer for "They Cloned Tyrone," for example, suggests the film leans heavily into the comedic side of satire. Most of the scenes meant to be played as comedy, however (with the exception of some great lines by Foxx), fall flat. And as the movie goes on, the plot points become more outlandish. The absurdity of the circumstances Fontaine, Slick Charles, and Yo-Yo find themselves in is far from a bad thing in itself, but as the movie becomes more like a spy thriller, the more it seems to lose the tone it was aiming for in the first half of the film. The result is a stilted back half, where the absurdity of what is going on — a satirical commentary on the many, many inequities in America — grinds against an awkward delivery of those themes.
A bold vision
For all the areas where it doesn't quite work, however, there's no argument that "They Cloned Tyrone" digs into important topics and inequities, and sheds light on people who deserve to get more attention. It's also a bold film that takes big swings. Unfortunately, many of those swings don't quite hit the mark — that evasive alchemy of genre blending never comes together into something cohesive and new. But the ideas "They Cloned Tyrone" explores, and the drive to try to bring something new to cinema, make me want to see what debut director Juel Taylor does next.
Taylor, who co-wrote "They Cloned Tyrone" with Tony Rettenmaier and penned the script for "Creed II," clearly has visions and ideas that deserve attention. And I'll be first in line to buy a ticket for whatever he does next.
/Film score: 5 out of 10
"They Cloned Tyrone" premieres on Netflix on July 21, 2023.