The Nth Ward (2017)

The Nth Ward: Directed by Camille Brown. With Juliette Bennett, James Harvey Ward, Charles Black, Christine Hameed. An engineer with the US Army Corps is sent to New Orleans after the hurricane the assess the damage. Bizarre happenings and disappearances lead her down a path of political deceit and voodoo.

“Bad Boy Bubby is a film that can shock. This is one of its virtues. Nth (sic) Ward shocks as well but it is not a virtue. There are at least 8 elements to consider when reviewing a film. Nth Ward fails on all of them but letu0026#39;s only consider a handful.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eCharacterisation – The acting part of the film. James Harvey Ward comes closest to breathing life into Kitch, his character, but the whole reconstructed sensitive new age red neck thing just doesnu0026#39;t quite ring true. He is all flannelette shirts whilst at the same time worrying about Juliette Bennettu0026#39;s shoes getting dirty. Still he is working with what the writers gave him and is sort of plausible.nJuliette Bennett has the same shoddy writing to work with but simply canu0026#39;t rise to the challenge. Dialogue delivery is stilted and lacking credibility. It is possible to fill a column about Bennetu0026#39;s on screen presence but letu0026#39;s concentrate on one tell tale trait. She doesnu0026#39;t know what to do with her hands! Scene after scene sees her fumbling with her hands just not quite certain as what to do with them. Itu0026#39;s sort of embarrassingly painful to watch and the benchmark of her ability as displayed in this film.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003ePlot – There is no plot. There are several unrelated and disjointed subplots. These include the supernatural, corrupt business dealings, environmental issues, a budding romance, an inter-racial family drama and so on. None of these is adequately explored or developed and make for a disjointed, fragmented and ultimately unsatisfying whole.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eSetting – Itu0026#39;s New Orleans for goodness sake! I know that it is post-Katrina but still, itu0026#39;s The Big Easy. Nth Ward could have been set anywhere. Apart from one of the many subplots concerning Voodoo and some footage of a brass band nothing of exotic, sweaty, historical, exciting, culturally rich, mysterious New Orleans makes it on to the screen. New Orleans itself contributes little or nothing to the film and this a sinful omission.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eAnd on we could go.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eNth Ward doesnu0026#39;t present shocks but it is a shocker.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eOh, and to those who have awarded this movie 10s, this is not helpful. It means that you are pegging Nth Ward at the same level as Angel Heart which utilized New Orleans beautifully, starred Robert de Nero and Mickey Rourke at their peak and saw Lisa Bonet break through as an great performer. Angel Heart is everything that Nth Ward isnu0026#39;t. This is an empirical reality but you are denying it.”