Brian Banks (2019) Review

This film has an interesting story to it so me and my family decided to watch Brian Banks and here is my review for it. The premise of the film is based on a true story where a young American Football Player gets wrongly convicted for rape and sent to prison, years later he attempts to clear his name. 

Main Character

Aldis Hodge plays the title character and he is excellent here. He gives a really dramatic performance and you find it really easy to root for him against everybody else in this film. You really want to see him succeed and Hodge does a great job in delivering a very memorable and powerful performance that really drives this movie. 

Supporting Characters

Greg Kinnear plays the lawyer trying to help Banks and I thought he was great too, the two of them together have really good chemistry and you feel like his character has an interesting arc which works well alongside Banks which makes the movie better. Morgan Freeman has a small role here and I mean it is Morgan Freeman of course he is great when he is on screen, it is just he isn't in the film that much and it does feel like a missed opportunity. Sherri Shepard who plays Brian's mum also does a good job here and gives one scene in particular where she really delivers. The rest of the supporting cast also do a good job and add to the real quality of the acting here. 

Story

The story really relies on the strong performances, you care about Brian Banks and really want to see justice served on his behalf which yes is done well, despite it being clear that certain aspects of the true story have been embellished for the film. But this film does have some missed opportunities, like the relationship between Hodge and Freeman, it plays an important part of the film but we get very little of it actually on screen and the film kind of skips over the actual court part of the film which always disappoints me.  

Script

The script is great, the dramatic scenes are really well written and really make you care about Brian Banks. There is also a nice bit of humour in there that helps flesh the characters out and make it feel like this is a film based in the real world and not too over the top. 

Style

The style of the film involves some dramatic and important moments that you can't take your eyes off the screen for. It also does a good job in using flashbacks to flesh out the story which was nice to see. Though as I said the pacing of the film isn't the best and I just wish certain elements of the film had more scenes involving them.

Overall

Overall, I thought this was a great emotional journey. It is a very heavy film and an emotional ride so you have to be in the mood for it, but I think this is worth a watch for sure.

Rating - 8/10