Life is all about perspective. After seeing “A Working Man” (2025), a film that was edited and directed until it became a pile of dogshit, it is easier to appreciate “Black Heat” (2024), which is a comparative masterpiece. When Tiana (Talha Barberousse) becomes the bottom bitch for King David (NLE Choppa), her parents, Malik (Jason Mitchell) and Alexis (DreamDoll), decide to rescue her whether she wants it or not and faces off against an apartment complex full of his henchmen, customers and employees to get her back. Will they ever be a family again?
“Black Heat” is the first of at least two movies featuring a Black couple as the action stars protecting their child (the other one is upcoming “Crimson Heat”). Initially Alexis and Malik just seem like a cute couple talking movies and as if they are meeting their daughter for dinner, but nope, they are strapped with a hostage lying down in the back seat. Michell and DreamDoll have great chemistry and are credible as a couple ready to take on the world to save their little girl. No respectability politics here. Malik does not have a laudable military background or experience in law enforcement. He is an old school gangsta from New Orleans who spent time inside. As the bodies start piling up, he mentions how he did not want to kill…again. Wait, what? Mitchell is the rare actor who can retain his tenderness while clearing a house of fitter, younger and meaner men. DreamDoll lives up to her name, and while her body count is not as high, it is not like some action movies where women only fight women. She faces the same opponents as her man, and they do not go easy on her.
While “Black Heat” seems like a straightforward rescue-the-girl movie, it unexpectedly turns into a domestic drama just when the action seems to reach the end of its runway. It is more realistic than most human trafficking movies because underage, teen Tiana is like most girls who get tricked into the oldest professions. She loves King David and has rationalized his abuse. Family secrets get revealed amidst the chaos, and the parents must win Tiana’s heart and mind to truly rescue her.
“Black Heat” has a more complex than expected generational divide theme about children challenging their flawed parental figures by destroying themselves. While NLE Choppa is too skinny to truly evoke fear, he does a serviceable job as a guy who is on top but still has too big an ego to recognize that Kelvin (Garrett Lee Hendricks) is trying to protect him. Kelvin’s storyline is also intriguing because when he first appears on screen, it is easy to dismiss his character as one of the scores of henchmen who will not last the night, but he plays a pivotal role and winds up being a relatively sympathetic figure.
Shiobann Amisial, who plays Good Samaritan, local self-schooled EMT, Aretha, nicknamed Re-Re, gets the Michael Fassbender award for being better than the role or “Black Heat” deserved (with all due respect). Every time that she was on screen, even if she did not have lines, she was ACTING. I’m talking Denzel Washington/Viola Davis/Avery Brooks territory. Amisial has this whisper, mouthing her words delivery that is somehow still clear and audible so she needs to meet with Christopher Nolan STAT. In those moments, she is so emotionally resonant that if the parents had known about her before, they should have just gotten a bullhorn and speaker for their car, given a microphone to good ol’ Re-Re, and just let her convince Tiana to come out. Lives would have been saved.
How was the fighting? Don’t expect some beautifully choreographed martial arts style action film. “Black Heat” features old fashioned, rough fighting. People get strangled, shot, stabbed, tossed off buildings. Best of all, the protagonists get tired because that is what happens when you fight a building of people. One of the executive producers, Han Soto, does double duty as the second person that Malik takes down. The best part is when one guy runs away.
While writer and director Wes Miller moved the camera around and cropped shots more than I would have preferred during the action sequences, overall, he does a lot with a little. It was a brilliant choice to start the movie off without a lot of back story or transition. He immerses his audience immediately into the rescue scenario without wasting time. It was the most annoying part of “A Working Man” when the protagonist takes his precious time working his way to the destination. Miller starts the movie at that precise point. Deciding to shoot everything in one location, an apartment building, was genius and gave “Black Heat” a John Carpenter feel. Is it a little Blaxploitation-esque when the parent protagonists break down doors looking for their daughter as an excuse to show scantily clad and naked women getting freaky with their clients. Yes, and it was the part of the movie that was the most eyeroll worthy, but it also was an excellent way to segue into the more intimate familial storyline. Even for people who do not want to see them, titties are distracting so it was not obvious that the story was going to delve into deeper depths.
In a day and age where most people, including yours truly, are rooting for the people who go no contact with their family, “Black Heat” could have stepped on a lot of landmines with the parent child storyline. Tiana dances really close to being unlikeable and as ungrateful as her mother claims, but DreamDoll’s ability to tussle with grown men also seems to not stop short with her daughter, which makes Tiana credible. So Miller pulls no punches and creates a world where parents and kids are flawed, but there is still unconditional love and sacrifice. Am I selfish to want to see what Tiana does after the movie, because by the end, it seemed as if she could run the joint.
Also considering all the violence and sex work, “Black Heat” takes a left turn when it suddenly sounds like one of those Christian produced movies. Because the overall story is so graphic, the random proselytization seems less preachy and more like “you need Jesus” in the Black spiritual tradition, which is so fair. There is another Jesus moment when one of the henchmen starts praying, and Malik does not let him die in peace and chooses to highlight the hypocrisy of praying to God while abusing women. Amen!
If you do not like action movies where parents kill a slew of people to get their little girl back, “Black Heat” is not for you, but if you are considering watching “A Working Man,” skip it and get more bang for your buck. Sure the production values are scrappier than most films out there, but the lighting, set up, story line, acting and action are more consistent. If you ever wanted to see a person solder a wound with a hot comb, “Black Heat” is the movie for you. Independent film is not just artsy fartsy stuff.
