The Current Cinema: "CUCK" (2019)
Rob Lambert's "CUCK" is a curious, exploratory look at the angry, passionate area of white Americans whose bigotry is vast and all-encompassing. Ronnie, the central character, listens to an endless stream of reactionary radio that proclaims the ugliness of minorities and gays, and watches computer streams of topless girls shooting at targets of President Obama with assault rifles. He is wound tight, quick to anger, prone to outbursts, and usually responds violently to the most general inanimate object. He lives with his mother, who is ailing, and who is quite weary of her son's lack of direction in life.
Ronnie is a tight bundle of anger and frustration, and the seething hatred that consumes him. His solace is his computer and the internet. He records himself offering a diatribe against liberals, Muslims, and gay pride and posts it on a right wing internet site. It quickly becomes a sensation and Ronnie suddenly has a definition and a purpose. With this as an outlet, his anger has a catharsis and he is able to comfortably hold down a job and maintain his temper, its base anger having been exhausted with his internet diatribes. He even has pleasant interactions with Arabic co-workers. However, a few unfortunate incidents and his anger again bubbles to the surface and he's no longer able to control it even with his cathartic internet diatribes. When he finds another outlet via sexual videos with a middle-aged couple that even offers payment, he wallows in another morass of bad behavior -- that is until he discovers that the videos are edited to make him look weak and ineffective (a CUCK) while a well-endowed black man is presented as the essence of virility. When these videos are posted, the followers of his diatribes all dismiss him as a phony and a joke and he loses his only source of catharsis. Of course this leads to an ultimate meltdown that results in tragedy.
The acting is first rate. Zachary Ray Sherman, an actor and filmmaker who has appeared in several films and had a recurring role on the revamped "90210," really envelopes himself in the character (he put on 45 pounds for the role). We believe his anger, we are uncomfortable with his xenophobic frustration, we see the change in his personality and ability to cope with everyday life when he finally finds an outlet for his unbridled bigotry. And when he finally explodes, we are unsurprised. Sherman comfortably owns every scene in which he appears, and his character continues to resonate even when he's not on screen.
The mother is played by veteran film and TV performer Sally Kirkland, an Oscar nominated and Golden Globe winning actress who keeps her character grounded and focused. What is most impressive about Ms. Kirkland's performance is how it maintains its strength while never overshadowing her leading man in their many scenes together. This is a delicate balance, even for the most seasoned performer, and Ms. Kirkland plays it perfectly. A long time expert at subtle nuance, Ms. Kirkland says more with the mere lift of an eyebrow or glint in her eyes than some performers are capable of conveying with pages of dialog.
The cast is rounded out by such noted actors as Monique Parent (known as The Thinking Man's Sex Symbol), indie film veteran Jessica Jade Andres (excellent in a jarring blind date scene), the prolific Patrick Malone (remembered as Terrell on "A Different World"), David Diaan, Travis Hammer, Hugo Armstrong, Albert Abraham, and newcomers Adam Elshar and Cammie York.
Director Rob Lambert, who also co-produced and co-wrote the script, brings an auteurist approach to the proceedings. Lambert makes his content as compelling as it is unsettling as he investigates the character and the limited parameters of Ronnie's immediate world. Lambert does this with a clear understanding of cinema's visual power. His framing of the action, use of lightness and dark, and succession of shots, are brilliantly effective and impressively artful.
"CUCK" makes a statement about a seamy underbelly of society. It is a film that is not afraid to confront, and comment upon, some pretty despicable ideas and behaviors. This is a very extreme film about a toxic character and his thoughts and actions, and is certainly not for everyone, not even for this reviewer. Objectively, however, it is well crafted and effective.