Turn on “They Cloned Tyrone” at a random moment and you could be forgiven for thinking you were watching a faithful remake of a Blaxploitation classic. In one early scene, the old-school pimp Slick Charles (Jamie Foxx) struts through a sleazy motel wearing a suit whose ridiculousness is matched only by his haircut. ’70s funk blares in the background as he tries to convince his top earner Yo-Yo (Teyonah Paris) to keep turning tricks for him. As she explains that she’s ready to move onto bigger things, the dialogue could be ripped straight from “Coffy” or “Foxy Brown” — until she mentions Bitcoin.
Yo-Yo — who earned her nickname because she keeps coming back after threatening to leave — is convinced that the blockchain revolution is going to be the golden parachute that gets her out of sex work. Ignoring the holes in her financial logic, the scene is a perfect encapsulation of the bizarre tonal cocktail that makes “They Cloned Tyrone” so much fun. “Creed II” writer Juel Taylor’s directorial debut ostensibly takes place in the present, but takes all of its stylistic cues from ’70s cinema. Throw in the fact that the plot revolves around futuristic cloning technology and you’re left with a whiplash-inducing good time that will leave you constantly glancing at the calendar.
Tyrone Fontaine (John Boyega) has more than enough enough problems on his hands. Aggression from rival gangs and increasingly weak product are threatening to derail his small drug empire, and it’s getting harder to collect the money that everybody owes him in a reasonable timeframe. So when the 1995 Players Ball Pimp of the Year tries to stiff his crew on a coke deal, he decides to make an example of him.
Fontaine heads down to the latest fleabag motel that Slick Charles is using as an office and finds the pimp full of excuses for why he can’t pay. But Fontaine isn’t having it. He shakes him down and leaves with the pimp’s emergency cash reserve, only to be murdered when a rival gang ambushes him on the way home. Bloody deaths are an unavoidable occupational hazard in Fontaine’s line of work — but the real surprise comes when he wakes up in his bed the next day as if nothing happened.
The re-born Fontaine has no recollection of last night’s events, so he goes through the exact same morning routine before attempting to collect his money from Charles and Yo-Yo. But they vividly remember the murder — and the only thing worse than seeing a ghost is seeing a ghost you owe a ton of drug money to.
Attempts to examine Fontaine’s apparent death lead them to a secret laboratory hidden under a fried chicken place that suggests they’re merely pawns in a conspiracy that goes far deeper than the streets. Armed with the knowledge that Fontaine can’t be (permanently) killed, the unlikely friends start throwing his body into the line of fire — and then repeating the same day over and over again — as they try to figure out who’s been lurking under their neighborhood.
The chemistry between the three leads is infectious — Jamie Foxx’s ludicrous pimp persona is a reminder that the man is a national treasure, and Boyega dutifully plays his hard-nosed straight man to great comedic effect. Parris rounds out the trio with a wildly entertaining performance as Yo-Yo, embodying the sex worker with the occasional obliviousness needed to lock horns with Foxx and enough street smarts to avoid becoming a caricature. The winning cast allows Taylor to exploit the formula that the Coen brothers have made careers out of: watching lovable dimwits investigate a mystery that they’re completely unqualified to solve is always a blast.
In addition to its Blaxploitation roots, “They Cloned Tyrone” also shares obvious DNA with some contemporary hits — namely genre-bending social satires like “Sorry to Bother You” and time loop sagas like “Russian Doll.” Yet it manages to weave its influences into something that feels consistently fresh without being derivative of any of them. Taylor builds his ‘70s-tinged vision of a dystopian future with a killer eye for detail, adding depth to even the most predictable symbolic moments. The film can be read as a metaphor for Hollywood trying to stifle the creativity of Black artists — but its very existence is proof that the alleged effort isn’t working.
Grade: B+
“They Cloned Tyrone” opens in select theaters on Friday, July 14 before streaming on Netflix on Friday, July 21.
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