★★★★
An impoverished preacher who brings hope to the Miami projects is offered cash to save his family from eviction. He has no idea his sponsor works for the FBI who plan to turn him into a criminal by fueling his madcap revolutionary dreams.
Classification: 15
Chris Morris finally returns to the director's chair with another satire examining the state of the western war on terrorism, this time however he travels to the United States with a story of how the FBI is creating their own criminals. The film begins stating that the story of Moses Al Shabaz is based off a hundred true stories, not tying itself down to any particular timeline of events but more likely to show the commonality of Shabaz's fate. Traits of delusion, incompetence, and unethical behaviour exist within both group of characters; Al Shabaz's "army" and the FBI investigating him as the film transforms into a fearless tragedy of human error. Morris's message with The Day Shall Come is how crime or more specifically terrorism in the aftermath of 9/11 has become a commodity for law enforcement, taking low-level targets usually confused, bolstering them into actual threats ending with a sting operation. The target gets decades-long prison sentences and the FBI agents get promotions and positive press for stopping the next 9/11.
While this scheme may have positive outcomes, Anna Kendrick's character repeatedly mentions that her actions in helping Al Shabaz acquire weapons are to be sure he doesn't acquire them from actual criminals. The FBI has this logic that by helping terrorists achieve their goals of terrorism covertly they are preventing terrorism, Morris doesn't want to show the heroism of that logic but how the Build-A-Terrorist business plan mentality of the FBI is far more destructive. The film shows the main concern of the FBI is to get the "right" arrest for publicity rather than preventing actual crime, going for easier bait to entrap as they seem to continuously target individuals with mental illness and delusions of grandeur.
Moses Al Shabaz is not a threat to anyone except possibly himself, he is clearly delusional but still a positive role model to his three disciples and his family through his preaching of non-violence. Al Shabaz runs a "farm" for his "army" known as the Star of Six where the worship deities such as Black Santa and General Toussaint L'Ouverture and continuously preaches the coming race war where black people shall take back the land and calls for the destruction of all guns and firearms. While also believing he can destroy construction cranes with his mind and can summon dinosaurs with the call of an airhorn.
Al Shabaz has no real way to ignite a race war nor does he want to cause any actual violence, his motivation is to prevent his eviction and keep his family together. This sudden need for money, unfortunately, coincides with the FBI's first attempt to funnel money and guns into his operation. Morris's script just layers the sheer incompetence of everyone beautifully as soon Al Shabaz wants to inform to the FBI about the very criminal operation they are assisting him in. The FBI's actions towards Al Shabaz are more destructive than anything he could have ever accomplished as they give him the resources that led him to make drastic decisions to try and save his family. Morris doesn't portray Al Shabaz as a joke, in fact, Marchánt Davis's performance makes the most empathetic character in the film. Despite his eccentricities, he still views people as people and wants to do what's best whereas the "good guys" seem unable to acknowledge the human element to Shabaz's story.
The Day Shall Come lacks the same uncanny realism of Morris's previous film Four Lions due to more prominent American actors portraying the FBI agents but doesn't fall short in capturing the incompetence that fuels the tragedies of these stories. Having recognisable stars as the FBI agents plays into the vanity of the organisation and their motives, their concern mostly being about reputation and perspective than justice and safety. Anna Kendrick as agent Kendra Glack who discovers Al Shabaz's live streams is constantly trying to salvage the operation when it becomes clear that Shabaz is another dud for the bureau and unwittingly ignites a statewide emergency revolving around Shabaz. Morris's direction of the film can almost feel like a game of Jenga, not in the sense that it's an unstable mess on the brink of disaster but how soon so many different elements are picking away at Shabaz's life unknowingly or not because of the actions of Glack leading to a destructive finale.
Morris's sharp wit is still ever-present in the script as while images of Al Shabaz riding a horse into FBI headquarters or his tense meeting with a band of neo-nazi leads to great moments of comedy, it's the writing that makes the film shine. Morris captures the empathy and realism in Al Shabaz's character perfectly extended through to his connection with his wife and daughter and his friendships with his followers, the comedy all comes naturally from who he is and the situation he is placed in. Morris throws no sudden curveballs for more ridiculous sequences for larger laughs, his focus is always on building comedy from the drama of the story. The main strength of the film is the dialogue, maintaining the balance of realism and ridiculousness as the more disastrous the plot becomes the more contradictory the characters must become to maintain the facade they have built. Level upon level of incompetence and confusion, with scenes of Kendrick's character trying to find logic with Davis's Al Shabaz or Denis O'Hare's FBI supervisor being comedic gold on both sides of the conflict.
The Day Shall Come is hilarious until the point where Morris rips away the safety net of the comedy and allows the consequences to resonate with the audience. Morris doesn't undermine the comedy of his film but doesn't allow it to be a distraction for the audience not to be emotionally affected by the story. Moses Al Shabaz may be fictional but the fate that awaits him is not, and it is a fate that awaits hundreds more as Morris captures the dark motivations behind the war on terror. Great performances and an even greater script make Chris Morris's return a welcome one as he delivers an important must film for our day and age.
Director: #ChrisMorris
Release Date: October 11th 2019
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Written review copyright ©CoreyBullochReviews
Images and Synopsis from the Internet Movie Database
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