Review of Sleight (2015) by Travis H — 29 Apr 2017

While Sleight is far from a perfect movie, it shows that first time director J.D. Dillard has a solid potential to deliver a worth while action or superhero film in his future. Jacob Latimore holds a solid amount of charisma and youthful vulnerability, as a "gifted" boy having to literally be the man of the house and provide for his little sister and having the power to elevate and perform magic tricks for money.

Where the film falters is the lack of explanation of how his powers work and the effect of it (without spoiling too much) as I feel it's a pretty major life changing thing that needs some background. Also, the films street drama background is a pretty familiar and unengaging part of the story, where the most interesting elements which is Jacobs powers, almost disappear for a cliche story for most of the second act. The third act begins to kick things back into why this story felt special, but sadly feels limited and a little too dialed back (which feels like it's mostly because of its small 250k budget), but still sets a world of potential for a story like this to grow.

Sleight at its best is a tonally well balanced genre bending film worth at least a watch. But on the other hand, feels like it really could have benefitted to explore more in the background to have more tricks up its sleeve.