Imperial Bubbly Dream

Description

IMPERIAL DREAMS

A Simple Film With Powerful Resonance Immersive Experience

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It’s all too easy for a movie like Imperial Dreams to overdo it. Countless films before have inadvertently glorified the kind of gangster lifestyle that they are trying to condemn. There are parties, drugs, meaningless sex, and gun fetishism.

Under the direction of Malik Vitthal, though, Imperial Dreams is something else. It truly is a cautionary tale, though not without hope. And, more importantly, stark realism.

A Leading Man Without Ego

There can be no question that Imperial Dreams is a statement. Though kept shelved since its initial release in 2014, it can be no accident that the film is landing now courtesy of Netflix.

With Beasts of No Nation, the streaming studio tackled a difficult reality that is often talked about and rarely understood from the ground level. They’ve done it again here.

Rather than the child soldiers of Africa, they’re allowing us a glimpse of the Los Angeles sidewalks, where gangster royalty and aggressive cops are at odds.

Caught between them is Bambi, played by John Boyega, a recently released criminal determined to build a life for his young son, Day (played by both Ethan Coach and Justin Coach).

Immediately upon his release, he’s set upon by his uncle (Glenn Plummer),

who will pay big money for the safe transportation of drugs to Portland.

This isn’t necessarily new territory for the genre, but Imperial Dreams manages to set itself apart with an atypical lead character and by giving itself time breathe.

It should be no surprise to anyone who has seen his other work that Boyega is stunning in this film.

This is a new angle for the actor, though, a far cry from the constant charm of Finn, his reluctant stormtrooper in Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

Bambi is more of a steadied thinker who takes pause to consider his surroundings and his options. Boyega fills those silences with the confident patience of a veteran actor, telling us more about his character than subtle tics ever could.

Bambi is a writer, and he has the personality to match. Even though we find out that he’s been in and out of jail since he was twelve, the street-tough alpha males around him seem to open up to him and spill their emotions. He’s a natural caretaker; his voice is quiet but tough, his face stoic in the face of danger. *

This balances itself out in scenes with his half-brother, Wayne (Rotimi), who has a more natural charisma as he struggles to pay for college and leave the dangerous city. The two actors have immediate chemistry.