Night Patrol, 2025.

Directed by Ryan Prows.
Starring Jermaine Fowler, Justin Long, Phil Brooks, Dermot Mulroney, Freddie Gibbs, RJ Cyler, YG, Nicki Micheaux, Flying Lotus, Jon Oswald, Mike Ferguson, Evan Shafran, Zuri Reed, Kim Yarbrough, Nick Gillie, Dennis Boyd, Colin Young, Brionna Maria Lynch, Dartenea Bryant, Reed Shannon, Leonard Thomas, and TML.

SYNOPSIS:

An L.A. cop discovers a local task force is hiding a secret that puts the residents of his childhood neighborhood in danger.

There is a storm brewing between the Zulu gang and LAPD, particularly the titular racist night patrol comprised of officers who conspicuously only come out at night. They feed on the blood of Black people, typically poverty-stricken ones driven into gang culture under the impression that no one will care.

Within the first five minutes of co-writer/director Ryan Prows’ Night Patrol, that unit (which is spearheaded by Phil Brooks’ Deputy, better known by his wrestling name CM Punk, putting that assertive and aggressive showmanship to work even if his limitations as an actor are limited and on display) is killing unarmed Black civilians minding their own business, notably the girlfriend of RJ Cyler’s Wazi, previously seen in a flash forward opening impaled and bloodied in an interrogation room, setting the stage that, yes, all-out war is inevitable.

That’s all well and good with a tantalizing horror concept ripe for sociopolitical commentary, except Ryan Prows and his crowded team of screenwriters (Tim Cairo, Jake Gibson, and Shaye Ogbonna) seemingly have no idea what to do with it or say that hasn’t already been made clear from the first 15 minutes. This is most evident in the three-act chapter structure, which switches perspectives from LAPD officers to night patrol to the project housing that becomes the battle stage, where it becomes confounding who the protagonist is supposed to be.

Justin Long’s Ethan Hawkins seems like an upstanding cop partnered with Xavier (Jermaine Fowler), the brother of Wazi, who had grown tired of the African mysticism their mother, Ayanda (Nicki Micheaux), relentlessly preaches and jumped sides to the police force. However, Ethan isn’t afraid to let out his corrupt, racist side if that’s what he has to do to get in with night patrol and bring them down from the inside.

At times, the filmmakers can’t decide how much they want the supernatural and African mysticism aspects to influence the action and the story. Although the visual effects are impressive (containing everything from exploding heads to regenerating bodies), the entire stretch of battling is bogged down by characters rambling about rules and what they are possibly dealing with, while throwing in other pointless thoughts. This is also a film that goes out of its way to make its villains damn near impossible to kill, only for the reveal of how that must be accomplished to come across flat, with the final fight specifically being a severe letdown after some otherwise serviceable violent carnage.

As mentioned, Night Patrol is aimless, sometimes too comfortable switching perspectives, even if it means killing off a main character, simply because the filmmakers have no idea what else to do with them. At one point, a character mentions culture (among other things) being the only way to fight back against these supernatural beings, but it’s yet another aspect that comes across as a thought rather than an explored concept. One of last year’s best films already did that with much more profundity, style, and absorbing entertainment. As for this disjointed and scattered genre exercise, one can get everything out of it from a rudimentary understanding of the premise and concept.

Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★

Robert Kojder

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=embed/playlist

Emmy-nominated comedian Joel Kim Booster is “just really happy” nowadays. Why? He’s a married man.

Kim Booster, the star, screenwriter and executive producer of gay rom-com “Fire Island,” has married video game producer Michael Sudsina in a December wedding that he said made for “the best day of my life, no contest.” The 37-year-old “Loot” star unveiled his nuptials on Wednesday, sharing the New York Times’ coverage of the milestone.

“I’ve never felt so certain and so loved,” Kim Booster captioned his first bunch of wedding photos. His “Urgent Care” podcast co-host Mitra Jouhari, and “Fire Island” co-stars and “Las Culturistas” podcast hosts Bowen Yang and Matt Rogers were among the friends who attended the ceremony at the Exploratorium in San Francisco, according to the photos. Comedians Patti Harrison, Cat Cohen, Ron Funches and Emmy-nominated “Loot” co-star Michaela Jaé Rodriguez also showed up for the happy couple.

“More pictures will be coming, in fact I might never stop,” Kim Booster warned his followers. “I’m just really happy.”

Kim Booster’s credits include comedy series “Shrill,” “Search Party” and “Big Mouth,” but he broke out with the 2022 film “Fire Island.” The comedy, touted as a spin on Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice,” follows a group of friends — some who find unexpected romances — on vacation at the popular New York LGBTQ destination. He received two Emmy nominations in 2023 for the film.

Sudsina, 32, is a games producer for “League of Legends” developer Riot Games and has worked on several of the gaming giant’s titles including “Valorant” and its Emmy-winning Netflix series “Arcane.”

The newlyweds tied the knot more than four years after striking up a romance amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The New York Times reported that the spouses sparked a romantic connection in May 2021 while on vacation with friends in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, and officially became boyfriends later that year. Moments from their Mexico vacation reportedly inspired tender scenes in “Fire Island.”

Kim Booster proposed to Sudsina in September 2024 while they were on vacation in Jeju Island, the South Korea island where the actor was born and adopted from, the NYT reported. Sudsina told the outlet, “I feel when I’m with Joel, I’m in a rom-com.”

“I love that we both have already worked through so much and continue to meet new versions of each other and continue to grow together,” he added. “I think he’s going to be an amazing father, an amazing partner, an amazing friend.”

Thalaivar Thambi Thalaimaiyil Movie Synopsis: A village panchayat member tries to broker peace when a wedding and a funeral collide on the same morning.Thalaivar Thambi Thalaimaiyil Movie Review: Nothing strips civilization off grown men faster than a scheduling conflict. Thalaivar Thambi Thalaimiyil understands this. It parks us in a remote village for one long night where two neighbors go to war over whose event gets the morning slot, and watches as every attempt at reason bounces off their egos like rubber balls off concrete.Jeevarathinam (Jiiva) is the local panchayat head, summoned to oversee a wedding. The bride’s father (Ilavarasu) treats the whole affair like a personal coronation. Next door, an old man dies, and his son Mani (Thambi Ramaiah) decides mourning means asserting dominance. Both want 10:30 AM. Neither will move. Jeevarathinam tries to mediate, fails, tries again, fails again. The man cannot land a single compromise.Nithish Sahadev, making his Tamil debut after the well-received Malayalam film Falimy, makes an interesting call with Jiiva’s character. Jeevarathinam isn’t portrayed as bumbling or clueless. He’s smart, reasonable, level-headed in conversation. The problem is that when situations escalate beyond discussion, when Mani starts swinging a giant sickle in the air and someone needs to physically put him down, Jeevarathinam just... doesn’t. He’ll talk, he’ll reason, he’ll negotiate. But that extra step required to actually resolve things is not in his toolkit. It’s a curious limitation to build a protagonist around, and while it generates some dry humor, you do wonder if the film needed him to be quite this passive for quite this long.The laughs come through texture rather than big setups: a reaction held just long enough, the specific cadence of village dialect landing a punchline, two patriarchs puffing their chests like they’re settling ancient blood feuds when they’re really arguing about procession routes. The director understands that comedy lives in small beats, even when the material itself rarely surprises.Jiiva commits to the energy without overplaying it: a man who keeps hitting walls he won’t climb over. Ilavarasu and Thambi Ramaiah deliver their usual reliable work. TTT draws considerable mileage from its rotating cast of village characters. The groom and his brother have an amusing accent they really play up. Mani’s bedridden father gets a couple of funny moments before shuffling off. Jenson Dhivakar is a total weasel, meaning he did his job. A lot of small characters perform one or two well-timed bits before fading into the background. Not all of it lands, but enough does.TTT asks for too much credit eventually. Once a woman chases a persistent suitor into the forest with a blade, once shotguns emerge, once ruffians lob homemade grenades at wedding decorations, the make-believe world you’d accepted tips into something sillier than it can support.You likely won’t recall much of the film in a few days, but it is a good festival watch. There’s craft in knowing your lane and staying in it.Written By: Abhinav Subramanian