The title of 2023's They Cloned Tyrone may prompt you to ask, "Why? Why did they clone Tyrone?" That's a question the film never answers, though perhaps it thinks it does. Somewhere in this muddled, racist mess, the filmmakers may well believe they conveyed any number of things.
Jon Boyega stars as drug dealer Fontaine, a taciturn young man who's shot to death, only to wake up the next morning as though nothing happened. But his death was witnessed by a Pimp called Slick (Jamie Foxx).
The two men are joined by one of Slick's prostitutes called Yo-Yo (Teyonah Parris) as they embark on an adventure to uncover a vast conspiracy.
The Wikipedia synopsis calls the film "retrofuturistic" which is I guess a reference to the fact that Fontaine has an old car. I don't know. Characters mention Sponge Bob and 50 Cent. There are surprisingly few references to gangsta rappers compared to the number of references to Spider-Man, Nancy Drew, and Star Wars.
Supposedly part of the insidious secret plot is to turn black people into white people, or at least, that's what we get from the infodump that serves as a climax. But it's not the movies and books starring white people, nor is it the Scottish and French alcohol the characters drink. No, it's--and I kid you not--the fried chicken, the grape juice, the hair products, and the gospel church. Yes, the evil scientists are trying to turn black people into white people with stereotypically black things. I guess the hair products that straighten women's hair kind of fits but it's certainly suspicious that a women's product that screenwriters Tony Rettenmaier and Juel Taylor (both men, one white) would have no interest in would be one of the Devil's instruments.
Incidentally, no parallels are drawn between the government hypnotising the populace and the pimp keeping a psychological hold on the women selling their bodies so he can buy expensive clothes and alcohol. Nor is a connexion made between the drugs Fontaine pushes, or his strong arm tactics, and the machinations of the conspirators.
The film is kind of cute in the few moments it gets away from its drunken conception of political messaging. I liked how Fontaine, Slick, and Yo-Yo became a team without really seeming to think about it, just out of an instinctual camaraderie. Though their infiltration of the enemy base requires some vigorous suspension of disbelief.
They Cloned Tyrone is available on Netflix.
X Sonnet #1727
A pleasure spurned was really spite for veal.
With leg o'mutton sleeves she served the scotch.
But patrons broke a plate before the seal.
And all the local cats could do was watch.
As galloped ghosts were polled we scattered tips.
However blank the page, we warrant knights.
Behold a cleaning label noting pips.
The captain's heart adorns a sleeve by rights.
Remembered noses notched above the bridge.
The reasons stated lopped around a hole.
A dozen questions lay below the fridge.
And only frozen chickens took the poll.
Enduring splashes soak the busy rail.
An idle dolphin stretched the iron pail.
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