Movie Review: "Ghost" (2020)
I’ve probably said this before, but I love covering indie film as a reviewer/critic/journalist. Hollywood can give you all the big-budget spectacles they want, and I’m all about those, too. However, there’s a passion, ingenuity, artistry, and care that’s prevalent in indie film that you just don’t see in a blockbuster. I watch a good number of low-budget films in any given year, and I would be hard-pressed to find a better example of all those aforementioned qualities than writer/director Anthony Z. James’ debut feature, Ghost.
Shot in “run and gun, guerrilla-style fashion” entirely on an iPhone 8, Ghost tells the story of Tony Ward (Anthony Mark Streeter; The Wind that Shakes the Barley), a man released from prison after ten years who’s trying to pick up the pieces he left behind and figure out what his new life will be. Tony left behind a son who’s now just gotten out on his own and become a man. Conor (Nathan Hamilton) is the spitting image of his father- he’s charming, brash, and more than a little cocky. It’s still a crazy and trying day for him, too. He hasn’t seen his father, his hero, since he was a small child and knows nothing of what he actually did to land in prison for a decade. As the two tentatively try to reconnect, problems arise in the form of two local hoods, Rob (Calum Speed) and Artur (Lev Levermore), looking to make trouble for their boss, Dominic Clarke (Russell Barnett; Wonder Woman 1984). To make matters worse, Dominic is Tony’s old boss and their history is extremely messy and violent. Can Tony keep his nose clean while keeping his son away from all the ugliness that controlled him as a younger man? Is there hope for their relationship?
I was frankly grabbed by Ghost right from the get-go: the open is a solid ten seconds or so of just the sounds of heavy gates closing, the yelling of prisoners, and the lighting of a cigarette all without a picture. Then, you see Tony standing just outside the outer gate of a very drab and ugly old prison in a bright blue jacket. His face tells a story, and you want to know what it is. It’s a strong opening shot that piques your interest.
There’s artistry on display in the symbolic, too: much of the first third or so of Ghost features the riverside or canal (I believe it’s called “the cut”) as a location. The steady shots balance out wonderfully with the ever-running water, symbolically showing that Tony and Conor are in the here and now trying to figure out how all this works while life rolls ceaselessly on. It’s a bit of foreshadowing on an instinctual level, letting you know that bad shit is coming.
Tony stands still in his new life, as the world rolls on uncaring.
And bad shit does indeed come. When you first meet Rob and Artur at the gym, it’s a fairly innocuous encounter…but you can see in the eyes of all those involved that danger is just below the surface. Then, Ghost does something truly enjoyable: it waits. This is a patient film that wants you to care about this family, and the pacing for the first hour might drive you a little nuts if you can’t get invested. That’s okay, though- it’s not hard to get hooked in to the story.
As events unfold in the personal life of both Tony and Conor, they struggle to understand each other. Once the family is brought cautiously back together at the home of Valerie Ward (Emmy Happisburgh; Following Footsteps), there’s catharsis for both the older and the younger. I was caught off guard by how powerful the interaction between Tony and Valerie was; “I broke my own heart, and I need help fixing it” is a powerful line that sticks the knife in.
Fortunately, Anthony Z. James sticks the knife in again with some attitude this time as the past truly comes back to haunt Tony. The ending of Ghost is unapologetically brutal and real. It’s also something of a technical marvel, making clever use of camera angles and raw physical brutality to make a bloodbath of an encounter happen on what had to be next to no budget. It’s a smart ending both in terms of the writing and the staging/choreography. There are much bigger budget productions that could take a page of out the book of Ghost.
The whole cast is superb in their respective roles, but Anthony Mark Streeter knocked me on my ass. He’s almost an enigma, a blend of Paddy Considine and Simon Pegg. He can be hard in one glance and endearingly funny the next. In many ways, he exemplifies the heart of Ghost- from the documentary look and feel of the cinematography to the human truths at the core of the story to the fantastic locations used, it just feels real in a way that many films do not. I’m impressed to the Nth degree. It’s equal parts family drama, crime drama, and cautionary urban fairytale.
Ghost is one of my favorite films of 2020, a gritty example of one of my favorite lines from Stephen King’s The Dark Tower series. In that tale, the gunslinger’s mantra includes the phrase, “I do not shoot with my hand; he who shoots with his hand has forgotten the face of his father. I shoot with my mind. I do not kill with my gun; he who kills with his gun has forgotten the face of his father. I kill with my heart.”
Ghost shoots with its mind and kills with its heart, and it’s pretty fucking righteous.
Ghost is available now on Amazon Prime
