[yasr_overall_rating]
A just paroled white neo-nazi and his ruthless girlfriend kill a cop and take an African American family hostage. Meanwhile the supremacist leader who oversees his criminal empire from behind bars, is not happy. Inspired by real events.
“Supremacy” claims to be based on a true story and as the movie begins, we see Garrett Tully (Joe Anderson), a white supremacist becoming a free man after having spent 15 years in prison for armed robbery. He is a member of the Aryan Brotherhood and is picked up by Doreen (Dawn Olivieri), also a member and on their way home, a seemingly hard-nosed black cop pulls them over. When he asks to see Tully’s ID, he initially refuses as he is the passenger in the vehicle and has done nothing wrong but as the cop doggedly insists and then makes his way to the passenger side of the truck, Tully jumps out of the vehicle with a handgun and forces him onto his knees. When Doreen inadvertently breaks Tully’s concentration, the cop goes for his gun and Tully shoots him dead. Panicked, the two take off, not knowing where they are going and find themselves down a quiet country road with an old farmhouse at the end.
They break in and when they realize that there is a black family living there, headed by an elderly Mr. Walker (Danny Glover), they take them hostage as they try to figure out their next move. The movie keeps up the tension as we see both Tully and Doreen freak out sporadically, not knowing if they are going to snap and kill the very people they were raised to hate. When Walker’s hotheaded grandson tries to take control, Tully shoots him in the chest, leaving him to bleed to death. Doreen calls one of her Aryan friends and fills them in on the situation at which point, they are told that they are on their own and no longer connected with the brotherhood. When Walker’s son Raymond (Derek Luke), a police officer, stops by randomly, the tension rises as Tully forces one of the family members to answer the door and at any cost, get him to leave without any suspicion.
When a movie takes place in one location, it can become boring very quickly with no change of scenery but director Deon Taylor successfully manages to utilize every room in the house, thereby keeping the tension steady and the background fluid. We never know why Tully and Doreen despise black people so much and the story never tries to understand their hatred and ignorance, in conversation, we hear that they’ve been members of the brotherhood for most of their lives and we’re pretty much told that this is who they are and then watch as they land in a deadly situation that is highly volatile and could explode at any moment. There are many bad people in the world and for some of them, there is no redemption, no penance and no amount of exposition that can truly comprehend why they are the way they are and that is the case here. Tully and Doreen are bad people, plain and simple no matter how hard they try to justify their actions.
The performances are top-notch. Danny Glover has appeared in all sorts of movies, from big-budget to independent and lately, I’ve found his acting to be pretty wooden but here, he truly shines. He mentions in an earlier scene that he is an ex-con and did time in the past, trying to reach Tully on some level and while he never quite reaches him, you can tell that what time he did spend in prison, took its toll on him and his family and because of it, there is an underlying tension between them and while the film never investigates that particular aspect, it does scratch its surface, generating interest in one of the film’s many elements that unfortunately, you never get to know about. Joe Anderson and Dawn Olivieri as the doomed couple, are truly magnificent and while they are despicable and loathsome, there is still a part of you that feels sorry for them as you watch helplessly, while they continue to dig their graves, deeper and deeper.
In stores April 21st
