‘1992’ Review: Tyrese Gibson and Ray Liotta Star in a Gutsy, Unexpected Heist Drama

There are moments in Ariel Vroman’s historical drama-heist thriller “1992” that speak volumes, but one that stands out comes from the late Ray Liotta . “1992” was the actor’s last film, and his performance is first rate and terrifying.

Liotta plays Lowell, a safecracker about to steal millions of dollars in precious metals from a factory on April 29, 1992: the day the Los Angeles Uprising began. As the streets fill with righteous anger and windows shatter and fires burn, this career criminal and abusive father, literally en route to commit a felony, looks out at the Black people raging against generations of injustice and — oblivious to any irony — declares that their grievance “doesn’t give them the right to do this. That’s other people’s property.”

Calling a heist movie something like “1992” is a gutsy move, because it tells the world that you’re not just making a thriller set during the aftermath of the disastrous Rodney King trial, you’re making a statement about the whole damn era. And while it would be an exaggeration to say that “1992” completely lives up to that ambition, nobody can say these filmmakers didn’t try. The heist isn’t incidental; the way it plays out is a horror of white privilege. Meanwhile, our heroes aren’t initially prioritizing or even aware of the theft in progress — they’re so busy trying to navigate the chaos and evade imminent police brutality that for a while we wonder if these two stories will ever intersect.

In lesser thrillers that might be an annoyance — imagine John McClane taking an hour to get to Nakatomi Plaza in “Die Hard” — but Vroman’s film uses an unconventional structure as a commentary on the genre itself and the values of the audience. Mercer (Tyrese Gibson), an ex-con trying to get his teenage son Antoine (Christopher Ammanuel, “Black Lightning”) to safety, is en route to the factory where he works because it’s far away from the violence. Or at least it’s supposed to be. Mercer can’t even get to the action-packed “movie” part of the movie because the harsh realities of April 29, 1992, can’t be avoided, nor should they be. They’re the actual point of the movie, even if there is eventually a shootout and a car chase.

By the time Mercer and Antoine do make their way to Pluton Metals, the thieves have already screwed everything up. Liotta’s two sons, Riggin (Scott Eastwood) and Dennis (Dylan Arnold, “Oppenheimer”) hate and fear him, and the one Black thief amongst their number, Copeland (Clé Bennett, “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier”), is the one Liotta thinks is expendable. Their crime isn’t exactly a microcosm of the social tensions unfolding outside the walls of the factory, but it’s infected with the same abuses of power and the same despicable apathy towards Black lives.

As an actor, Gibson is best-known for likable, shallow turns in the likable and shallow “Fast and Furious” and “Transformers” movies. “1992” is a welcome reminder that when he has smart material, he’s an excellent actor. Mercer’s stoicism hides a criminal past, that much is made clear early on, but watching when he chooses to stand up for himself and his son, and when he knows he’s fighting a losing battle, speaks to the life lessons he’s learned the hard way. Ammanuel plays Antoine as a teenager going through an emotional whirlwind even before the day took a harrowing turn, and his fury at a world that expects him to play nice but will never belong to him is real and understandable. It’s his inexperience and impetuousness that might get him into trouble.

And again, there’s Liotta, a small man doing a big job, who takes what he wants and resents anyone who would do the same. The actor infuses Lowell with a frightening pragmatism, fueled by self-preservation and unexamined prejudice. He’ll do whatever it takes to make money, and it usually involves hurting Black people, or making his youngest son afraid to show weakness, because weakness is feminine. Lowell never gives a big speech about his superiority. His evil is alarmingly and believably casual. If you asked him, he’d probably say he doesn’t have a bigoted bone in his body, even after he’s killed two Black men just for inconveniencing him.

“1992” is intelligently written, intensely photographed and edited, sharply acted and unusually potent. It’s got a low budget veneer but director and co-writer Ariel Vroman — who shares a screenplay credit with Sascha Penn (“Creed II”) — uses everything at his disposal. It’s as big as it needs to be, it’s as effective as it can probably get. As a thriller, it pounds the pulse; as a drama, it beats the heart. It balances both genres expertly, and that’s where its power lies. A deft combination of excitement and thoughtfulness, an excellent and unexpected film.

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