Review: Black Box

Director: Emmanuel Osei-Kuffour

Screenplay: Emmanuel Osei-Kuffour y Stephen Herman

Year: 2020

A few days back, I reviewed “The Lie”, which was released together with “Black Box” on Amazon Prime as part of the “Welcome to the Blumhouse” series. In that review, I pointed out how “The Lie” was not a good representative for exciting people to continue watching the series. However, “Black Box'' does the full opposite.

In a car crash, Nolan loses his wife and barely survives himself, but loses his memory due to the accident. After trying different types of therapies for helping him recover his memory, Nolan accepts to be part of an experimental treatment that promises to be more effective in this task. As part of the experiment, Nolan must explore his memories, but they seem so distant that they seem not to be his own. 

In the movie’s first act, we get to know the protagonist Nolan (Mamoudou Athie; “Underwater”) and the difficulties in his life because of his memory loss. His daughter Ava (Amanda Christine; “Colony”) has to help his father fulfill his obligations and remember details of his day-to-day activities. Beaten down by the pressure of not being able to take care of his daughter as he should and not being able to practice his profession as before, Nolan decides to put himself in the experimental treatment that promises to give him back his memory. 

During these scenes, the strongest aspects of this movie stand out. The script by Emmanuel Osei-Kuffour, who also debuts as a director, and Stephen Herman leans towards using the emotional side in the plot development and the decisions that each character makes, and they do a great job of making this a coherent process, even with how intertwined the plot becomes. The acting is key for showcasing and making the emotional part credible, where the cast also does a phenomenal job, especially with the beautiful father-daughter relationship of Nolan and Ava.

Another strong aspect of “Black Box” is its plot. Although the movie is a sci-fi thriller, different from “The Lie”, this one does take elements from horror cinema. It is also impossible to ignore the parallels it has with “Get Out”, but the present is of a lesser quality than the Oscar winner. Its plot is intriguing since the beginning, and as it develops and becomes more complex, the more it submerges the viewer in it.

If I had to recommend only one of the first two movies from the “Welcome to the Blumhouse” series, without thinking twice, I would go with “Black Box” over “The Lie”. Its plot and the acting are its best resource, besides the excellent use of the horror elements it includes. Besides an intriguing story, the twists are unexpected and well done to keep surprising the viewer in each of them.