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Lately, it seems as though some kind of violence could erupt around any corner, anywhere in the world. And in Bushwick, that’s exactly what happens—and it leaves the residents of a Brooklyn neighborhood struggling to fight back against an unexpected attack while scrambling to try to make it out alive.
Bushwick stars Brittany Snow as Lucy, whose trip home to Brooklyn to introduce her family to her boyfriend turns deadly when she steps out of the subway to find that the streets have been invaded by some mysterious army. Dodging through the streets, trying to get to her family without getting shot first, she meets Stupe (Dave Bautista), a war veteran who’s trying to get to his own family in Hoboken. So they team up to help each other evade looters, invaders, and resisters in an attempt to find safety.
The idea of Bushwick is a terrifying one: the idea that you could walk out into the street one day and find yourself caught in the middle of some unknown war. And the opening scenes—as Lucy and her boyfriend step out into an eerily deserted subway station and get gradually closer to the action on the streets—are chilling.
Really, though, there’s not much to the story. Between the scene when Lucy and Stupe first meet and the characters’ final race to get rescued, not much of note happens. Together, they dodge bullets, nurse some wounds, race through buildings, and meet up with Lucy’s painfully annoying stoner sister. It isn’t until halfway through the movie that they finally figure out what’s happening and why—and when they finally force the truth out of a soldier at gunpoint, it turns out that it wasn’t really worth the buildup.
The film seems to focus its energy less on plot and more on the shock and violence of this sudden attack, as armed men gun down pedestrians and civilians fight back. The action is definitely explosive—and often bloody, too, dragging out images of the characters’ wounds for extra shock value. But without a solid story, well-developed characters, or even an objective beyond simply getting out of the neighborhood, viewers will find it difficult to care about the characters and their fight for survival.
While it’s certainly action-packed—and the scenario is fascinating—the weak plot and flat characters of Bushwick will leave audiences struggling to connect. In the end, it feels like a 45-minute story (or less) stretched out to feature length with extra blood and explosions.
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