Rating summary

Movie		2.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		0.0
Overall		2.0

River Runs Red Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman December 12, 2018

Black lives may matter, but it may be kind of sadly debatable how much River Runs Red does. This oddly fragmented tale would seem to have the cultural zeitgeist in its cinematic corner (so to speak), with a story involving at least a couple of deaths of young men, one of whom is black and both of whom are minorities, at the hands of police officers, but in a sign that sometimes upstart treatments of touchy subject matters can be the most effective, I’d personally have to say that an entry like Blindspotting, which offered a similar plot element of a police shooting of an unarmed black man as almost a sidebar to its main story, may ironically offer more visceral emotional impact, something that really is kind of surprising given that at least parts of that Oakland based film are played for laughs. River Runs Red is very dramatic, on the other hand, but it’s the kind of overheated drama that is frequently the stuff of “ripped from the headlines” made for television movies, which is often what this film plays like. A number of strands are introduced, only to be predictably woven together as various intersections are explored, but the film still has a kind of diffused, emotionally distant tone that is not helped but some fairly clunky dialogue given to a number of characters who are in the throes of various kinds of trauma.

It’s probably no huge surprise to state that American culture has become increasingly “tribal”, and there is certainly an “us vs. them” subtext running through the film. The first “us” is Charles Coleman (Taye Diggs) and his sweet little boy CJ, with Dad “educating” his boy about the exploits of one Muhammed Ali at a museum exhibit about the iconic boxer. We get another vignette showing Charles attempting to hoist himself out of poverty by attending law school, but seeming to fail, if not miserably, then at least a little humiliatingly. But then — the film just segues forward several years to find Charles ensconced as his town’s sole black judge. His previously very briefly seen wife Eve (Jennifer Tao) is a police officer, and young man CJ (Joseph Belk) is about to follow his parents’ law enforcement footsteps by attending the local police academy.

Things take a tragic turn when CJ is shot dead by an unscrupulous cop named Rory (Gianni Capaldi), who it is telegraphed is a “bad guy” courtesy of his disheveled appearance, generally crass demeanor, and his penchant for cigar smoking. His partner Von (Luke Hemsworth, looking like he packed on a few pounds for the role) is putatively the better of the two bad cops, but seems to be under Rory’s sway, so that when incriminating evidence is placed on CJ’s corpse, he doesn’t raise much of a fuss. Already the film is teetering at the edge of ridiculous melodrama — the admittedly piecemeal screenplay has made it clear that Charles is the only black guy in town, and is the town’s judge, and Eve is a cop herself, so wouldn’t Rory and Von realize whose kid they were dealing with? But questions like this are probably best left by the wayside, since River Runs Red is almost desperately intent to deliver some kind of message, even if it’s kind of unclear what exactly that message is supposed to be.

Two sidebar characters who have been introduced end up playing into the story once CJ is killed. Charles’ policeman friend Horace (John Cusack), who had promised to look out for CJ at the police academy, starts offering Charles more than merely moral support. But when Charles finds out the cops who killed his son have a rather shaded past, he ends up forging a relationship with another grieving father, a mechanic named Javier (George Lopez). It’s here that the film may ultimately shoot itself in the foot (sorry), with the two unlikely figures going on a quest for vengeance that kind of plays like a Death Wish pas de deux (so to speak). It’s just patently ridiculous, not helped by some of the most unconvincing fight scenes and car chases in recent film history. (There’s a sequence with Charles and Javier chasing some bad guys in their car, with the bad guys backing up slowly through oncoming traffic on a highway to get away, in what may actually be a laugh provoking moment.)

River Runs Red obviously had noble intentions, but the story is ultimately so ludicrous that it makes any heart rending element seem moot. Performances are oddly mismatched as well, with Diggs almost approaching a “mumblecore” tamped down ambience, and Lopez playing to the second (and maybe even third) balcony. The ending may seem to rather strangely suggest that “all lives matter”, but perhaps not in the way the filmmakers may have thought.

River Runs Red Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

River Runs Red is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Cinedigm with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.39:1. Once again technical data on this shoot was almost insanely hard to come by, and in fact it took me a while to uncover a photo of director Wes Miller with one of the two credited cinematographers on the film, Michael Broughy, where an Arri Alexa camera was identifiable, so I'm jumping to conclusions and assuming that camera digitally captured the imagery, which I am again assuming was then finished at a 2K DI. (As always with my reviews, if someone has authoritative data to the contrary, let me know and I'll happily update the review.) The reason why this snark hunt was a bit frustrating is because the imagery here has obviously been intentionally tweaked to give things a more "filmic" appearance with the addition of digital grain. For the most part it's a pleasing gambit, with a subtly textured appearance that doesn't significantly distract due to looking inorganic, and with detail levels remaining high throughout most of the presentation. There are a couple of odd moments where it almost looks like focus pulling was an issue, as well as a few isolated dark sequences, where detail levels falter momentarily. The palette doesn't really look like it was graded much if at all, and as such things have a natural if not especially vivid appearance.

River Runs Red Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

River Runs Red features a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track that gets occasional jolts of sonic electricity courtesy of things like gunshots, but which tends to get most of its surround activity courtesy of the dolorous piano suffused score by Pierre Heath, as well as occasional ambient environmental sounds. The final third or so the film bursts into action adventure territory, with fights and chases, and the sound design here does provide consistent immersion. Dialogue (such as it is) is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout.

River Runs Red Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

There are no supplements of any kind on this Blu-ray disc.

River Runs Red Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

River Runs Red actually makes some interesting points, but some of the most interesting are almost tangential to the main story, with Charles' life as a judge colliding with the realities of what it means to sentence someone as a felon. The main story here is both too hackneyed and ultimately too unbelievable to ever resonate, though it's obvious that Wes Miller "feels" this situation deeply and was striving to make some kind of point. Technical merits are solid for those considering a purchase.