The premise of American Skin is wonderful. A father whose son was shot by police during a traffic stop takes the police captain hostage and puts him on trial for what happened. Unfortunately the script is rote, filled with cliches, hitting us on the head with its messages. Everything about the film is obvious in a way that strips it of its power. This could have been a bold, challenging film. Instead it's simplistic and hackneyed, minimizing the impact of the story.
Characters in American Skin are mostly archetypes with little depth. Parker's own character, the centre of the film, on which everything depends, is the perfect everyman, not the multidimensional human that the film needs him to be. Others in the film all spew rhetoric. They are just mouth pieces for the "debate" the film presents, not actual characters. They each take turns saying the typical things that people say in these discussions. I never came across a moment where I was surprised or taken aback by some insight presented. It felt like the script was just ticking the boxes we all expected.
American Skin offers some moments that approach powerful truth. The story of this man is one that is all too real and if Parker had been able to capture the honesty of that experience instead of focusing on the talking points American Skin could have been something truly rich. But Parker doesn't go for that. He spells everything out for us letter by letter, and gives us exactly the predictable ending we would expect. It is an ending that doesn't feel like it holds any of the emotional weight that it wants to.
American Skin
Starring: Nate Parker, Omari Hardwick, Larry Sullivan, Theo Rossi, Beau Knapp, Shane Paul McGhie,
Writer/Director: Nate Parker
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