Streaming Sleepers: In MICKEY HARDAWAY, A Gut-Wrenching Profile Of Youth Endangerment
Psychological turmoil and generational trauma are front and center for the topical subject matter of Mickey Hardaway, the writing/directing debut of Marcellus Cox. A concept born from a shortfilm produced several years earlier now sees Cox featuring Rashad Hunter in the title role, spotlighting a cautionary coming-of-age tale now available on select digital and streaming platforms, including Tubi.
The meat and potatoes of Mickey Hardaway mostly cut right to the thick of things in direct, cerebral fashion. Cast in black-and-white for most of its duration, the first few minutes of the film make it crystal clear just what you’re in for. The first act nonetheless prepares you for the events and nature in which things firstly develop, immersing you into the hardship faced by Mickey (Rashad Hunter), and the first of his weekly therapy sessions with Dr. Harden (Stephen Cofield Jr.) at the behest of loving girlfriend, Grace (Ashley Parchment).
Flashbacks pave the way in segments throughout the film, focusing on multiple areas of Mickey’s beleagured upbringing. In no easy terms, the ground covered includes his mother’s pseudo-protective responses to the enabled physical and mental abuse he suffered from his father. The movie also explores how this abuse so often hampered Mickey’s growth as a young, inspired artist with dreams of becoming a cartoonist and animator.
Additionally, the introspective saga includes the moment Mickey finally stood up to his parents and left, followed by the years of hardship and a fateful reunion with his former art teacher, Mr. Sweeney (Dennis L.A. White). Invariably, Sweeney is just one of the few existing anchors of positive reinforcement in Mickey’s life.
Mickey also has an older brother named Travis who only appears in a few flashback scenes of the story, and can be seen with their mother praising one of Mickey’s drawings. They, along with Grace, Sweeney, and even a guidance counselor early on in the film, are indicative of a support system, albeit crucial, that dwindles and eventually dissipates as time passes and things get inextricably harder for Mickey.
The biggest lynchpin moment of this occurs when Sweeney quarterbacks Mickey with a recommendation with the head writer of a press firm named Hammerson (Samuel Whitehill). What happens then is only a matter of time, as Mickey is confronted with a cold hard truth – a residual consequence of saying “no” to an offer that was inevitably too good to be true. It is a bookmark that outlines perfectly the years-long systemic breakdown of Mickey’s upward mobility as a young black man among many black men faced with daunting odds of success or failure in a country once, and still is – even today in perfect sardonic fashion – hailed as “the shining city on a hill.”
I won’t go too much into the specifics of Mickey Hardaway and its conclusive unfolding moments. What I will say, in all avoidance of painting this film as a rosey character drama, is that Mickey Hardaway is exactly the kind of story that touches on the realest of circumstances faced by young people of color, for decades. It is a story that upends with violent repercussions, further cementing the challenges that come with pondering just what it means to be young, a person of color, and oppressed and betrayed from multiple sides, even from within.
Recaptulating the drama toward the end is a scene between Sweeney and a police officer which does lean a tad on the preachy side, doing a little too much for the messaging the movie itself carries over; An audible outro line delivered by Grace lends a fine summation on Mickey Hardaway, a storied personification of a young life, gifted with potential, and tested to his wits end. The reality of it is ugly at its core, as is its importance for the sake of all the Mickey Hardaways who have come and gone over the years.
Native New Yorker. Been writing for a long time now, and I enjoy what I do. Be nice to me!
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