The Gates
Racially and religiously-charged thriller is a bit obvious, but builds tension nicely.
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Two titans of fictional Texas high school football Johnny Moxon (the late James Van Der Beek of “Varsity Blues” in his final film role) and Buddy Garrity (Brad Leland from NBC’s “Friday Night Lights” - he also played John Aubrey in Peter Berg’s 2004 movie of the same name) team up to terrorize a trio of innocent, young black men in the sociological thriller “The Gates” (now in select theaters).
College-aged, African-American buddies - aspiring lawyer Derek (Mason Gooding), motormouth Kevin (Algee Smith) and injured quarterback Tyon (Keith Powers) - are out for a night on the town in a cool car Kevin borrowed from the auto lot at which he works.
They’re hoping to hook up with some females at whom Tyon’s been hollering, but they get stuck in a traffic jam. Looking to evade the backup they cut through a gated community, but get stuck inside the neighborhood’s walls.
Looking for help they turn up at the home of Pastor Jacob (Van Der Beek) just in time to see him push Elizabeth (Elle Evans) headfirst into a fireplace mantel killing her. Jacob sees the trio and he knows they saw him. He immediately grabs a handgun and is in pursuit of them.
They seek assistance from Christopher (Leland), an ex-football player, but he’s one of Jacob’s parishioners and sides with his minister. The men call community cop Officer Bobby (Kylr Coffman) to intervene and he’s all too happy to believe them and accost these innocent victims.
“The Gates” as written and directed by John Burr (“Muse,” “Legend of the Muse”) is an entertaining albeit obvious thriller. It has worthwhile things to say about racial relations and religious hypocrisy in this country, but I’d argue it probably could’ve gone harder even if the kid gloves afford us a surprisingly happy ending for which I was thankful.
What really makes the movie work are the performances of its primary cast. I like and am familiar with the work of Gooding and Smith from projects such as the past few “Scream” pictures and “Heart Eyes” and “Detroit” and “Euphoria,” respectively. Powers was more of an unknown quantity to me (humorously and interestingly enough, he and Green co-starred in the 2017 BET miniseries “The New Edition Story” playing members of the R&B group), but he acquits himself nicely and these guys are a likable trio for whom it’s easy to root.
Leland gets interesting notes to play as a man who’s battling between loyalty to his pastor, his own prejudices and doing what’s right at the end of the day.
Performance-wise I’d say the standout is Van Der Beek. He goes out on a high note playing a low life. His Pastor Jacob is equal parts manipulative and menacing making for a formidable threat to our three heroes.
I was tickled watching “The Gates” as it’s a flip of sorts on the 1993 Cuba Gooding Jr. vehicle “Judgment Night” (he’s Mason’s Dad for those of you who don’t know). That movie depicted a largely white group of guys (save for Cuba) witnessing a murder in the hood and having to fight for survival whereas this one’s three black dudes stuck in suburbia under somewhat similar circumstance. I suppose the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.