‘Brian Banks’ Film Review: Forgettable Film Squanders Powerful True Story

Perhaps the worst thing a film can be, even more so than the binary of good or bad, is forgettable. That is the best way to reflect upon “Brian Banks,” the latest film in the canon of dramas that highlight the criminalization and mass incarceration of black people in the United States. Director Tom Shadyac (“The Nutty Professor”) flatly tells the true story of the titular football star (Aldis Hodge, “City on a Hill”) whose promising career came to a screeching halt when he was wrongfully accused and convicted of raping a young woman in 2002 (when he was 17 years old) and spent six years in prison. Though we see brief flashbacks of Brian in jail feeling defeated and struggling to navigate the system inside, much of the film is spent after his incarceration, as he tries in vain to find work despite having a criminal record while on a strict custody parole and fighting to clear his name. It’s odd to describe a film like this as not dramatic enough, but there is an awkward lack of urgency, which isn’t helped by a lifeless score by John Debney (“The Beach Bum”) lifeless score that further cloaks it. Every...