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Karen (film)
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Wikipedia article
'Karen' is a 2021 American crime thriller film written and directed by Coke Daniels, and starring Taryn Manning, Cory Hardrict, Jasmine Burke, Roger Dorman, Brandon Sklenar, and Gregory Alan Williams. The title of the film is a reference to the American "Karen" stereotype. The film was critically panned upon release.
Plot
Malik and Imani Jeffries, a young black couple, move into a new house in the fictional affluent suburban Atlanta community of Harvey Hill, named after Confederate general Daniel Harvey Hill. Harvey Hill Homeowners Association president Karen Drexler, their next-door neighbor, quickly introduces herself to Malik; she refuses to shake his hand, callously comments about not "having any cash" in her home, and installs a security camera in the direction of their house. Although perplexed by Karen's behavior, the couple decide to ignore their concerns and focus on settling in.
Unbeknownst to both of them, Karen is virulently racist, with Neo-Confederate memorabilia in her home and a reputation for abusing her power as president to target local black residents, often recruiting her equally racist brother, Atlanta Police Department patrolman Mike Wind, to help. She soon starts harassing and stalking the couple, trying to find something she can use to get them out of Harvey Hill. She discovers that Malik secretly smokes marijuana and catches her son Kyle watching the couple have sex in front of an open window, but when she brings the issue up at a meeting of the Association's executive board, the other members, disturbed by her bigoted remarks about African Americans, decide against taking any action.
After learning that Malik and Imani are holding a housewarming party for their friends, Karen convinces Imani that she wants to make amends and receives an invitation. At the party, she quickly offends everyone present by trying to argue that black Americans are being too "angry" and saying that if they dislike America, then they should just "go back", which infuriates Malik as he makes her leave. The next day, Karen comes across three young black men, demanding that they present her with identification. They refuse, and she calls her brother, lying that they are threatening her physically. Mike arrests them, but the men are quickly released after video footage surfaces of Karen's phone call. The Association then fires her as president after being sued by prominent civil rights lawyer Charles Wright, the father of one of the young men.
Growing more deranged and frustrated, Karen gets Mike to pull Malik over while driving home from work by revealing his history of marijuana use. Mike finds no marijuana in his car, so he plants a bag of weed in the trunk, resulting in Malik's subsequent arrest. Officer Hill, Mikes rookie partner, accuses Mike of racism. Mike threatens to kill Hill while warning that he is protected by a secret brotherhood within the police force. Malik manages to post his own bail and arrives home later that night. Karen then visits Imani the next morning, telling her that she and her husband should leave the neighborhood to avoid any more trouble. Imani defiantly responds that she and Malik will not be leaving anytime soon. The couple then hire Charles to represent them, who shows them a file suggesting that after a Black vigilante killed Karens police officer husband Ken Drexler and two other officers a few years earlier, Karen became unhinged and was dismissed from her job as an elementary school teacher for making racist remarks towards her students. That night, Mike arrives with a falsified search warrant and arrests Malik again for possessing a handgun, and Imani tearfully calls Charles, who calls the precinct and discovers Malik was not formally booked. Meanwhile, Karen cuts the power to the couple's house and breaks in with a gun. While Imani defends herself with a sword, Karen shoots at Imani several times, prompting a neighbor to call the police. Mike immediately rushes to Imanis house, where the siblings threaten Imani at gunpoint before Karen seemingly shoots her dead. Hill rushes in, and a standoff ensues until Mike and Hill shoot each other at close range; Mike is killed while Hill is only slightly wounded. Karen prepares to finish him off, but a still-alive Imani grabs Mike's gun and kills her in self-defense.
Malik is released from custody, and he and Imani receive a full apology and compensation from the city of Atlanta for what they went through. Imani, now pregnant, assumes Karens position within the Homeowners Association and successfully renames the community to John Lewis......
Cast
* Taryn Manning as Karen Drexler (ne Wind)
* Cory Hardrict as Malik Jeffries
* Jasmine Burke as Imani Jeffries
* Roger Dorman as Officer Mike Wind
* Brandon Sklenar as Officer Hill
* Gregory Alan Williams as Charles Wright
* Veronika Bozeman as Fatima
* Dawn Halfkenny as Chanel McFadden
Production
Principal photography began in Georgia in December 2020. Filming wrapped in February 2021.
Release
In August 2021, it was announced that Quiver Distribution acquired North American distribution rights to the film, which was released theatrically and on demand on September 3, 2021.
Reception
Critical response
Most reviews were negative. Writing for RogerEbert.com, Nick Allen wrote that "The movie is clueless about to how be a thriller, in either a serious or tongue-in-cheek way. ... Even with the most basic forms of gratuitous schlock, 'Karen' does not try."Michael Nordine, in 'Variety', said that "Anyone subjected to this ... will want to get out of the theater as quickly as possible. Writer-director Coke Daniels satirical thriller offers little in the way of incisive social commentary or thrills. ... 'Karen' plays out instead as a parade of clichs that escalate in terms of intensity but not tension. Karen reveals herself as an irredeemable racist the moment we meet her, and so theres never any depth to her character. ... Shaky production values abrupt cuts, image quality that feels more made-for-TV than silver screen dont help, but the main culprit is Daniels painfully unsubtle script."
Richard Roeper commented in the Chicago Sun-Times that this "poorly executed tale of a hateful racist isnt even worth watching as a curiosity. [It] contains no valuable insight or social commentary and simply plays like a Greatest Hits (or should we say Biggest F-Bombs) of horrific, racist, hateful behavior by the title character. This movie is so broad and so poorly executed it comes across as an extended 'SNL' parody of a Jordan Peele film."
On TheWrap website Elizabeth Weitzman observed that the film was a "genuine jaw-dropper on multiple levels, Coke Daniels 'Karen' is a misbegotten thriller about a woman named Karen who actually is a Karen. ... Considering that theres not a single twist or surprising moment, 'Karen' fails as a thriller. Given that it delivers its messages that Black lives matter, and that Karens and some cops are racist with all the subtlety of a meme, it fails as a cultural critique."
Accolades
References
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