A Man in Full movie review & film summary (2024)

Based mostly on Tom Wolfe’s 1998 novel of the identical title however translated into the twenty first century, “A Man in Full” focuses on the Southern-fried Croker (Daniels), who lives lavishly like each different rich enterprise tycoon, actual or fictional: He flies round in personal jets, has a a lot youthful spouse (Sarah Jones), and, most significantly, bleeds cash just like the financial institution is not coming to get him. On the heels of his ostentatious sixtieth party, the place his closest aristocratic enterprise pals collect to observe none apart from Shania Twain (a wild cameo) carry out a few of her best hits, the financial institution comes a-knocking, wanting their mortgage a reimbursement—$800 million price, in reality. 

Shortly after the festivities, Croker meets with Planners Financial institution; his opponent, Harry Zale (a fierce Invoice Camp), squeezes him out, telling him he is bankrupt and should begin paying again what he owes. Inside that boardroom is his outdated prodigy-turned-loan-officer Raymond Peepgrass (an engrossing Tom Pelphrey)—an actual title no person determined to replace for some cause––who has it out for Croker. As his troubles compound, Croker scrambles to search out traders for his monolithic enterprise. 

Croker’s woes play out amidst a mayoral election season, through which his former enterprise colleague runs in opposition to Wes Jordan (William Jackson Harper), a younger Black mayor vying for his second time period. Proper when Croker wants his company lawyer Roger White (Aml Ameen) at his facet, he as a substitute duties him to assist his secretary, Jill Hensley (Chanté Adams), with a racially-charged trial involving her peacekeeping husband Conrad (Jon Michael Hill), convicted of assaulting a violent police officer over a parking violation that lands him in at a hostile correctional facility. 

I went into “A Man in Full” considering it could fill the “Succession”-level void I have been craving for since its conclusion. Alas, it is nowhere near that. Thematically, it performs like a Georgia-set “Home of Playing cards” meets “The Chi,” as Kelley’s roundabout dissection of the working- and upper-class disparity inside Atlanta is not something notably novel or attention-grabbing. Kelley fills the proceedings with a number of comical moments that had been, per my analysis, tailored from Wolfe’s textual content—like Croker attempting to point out an investor horse breeding on his plantation. However these cheekier moments by no means cohesively tie into the distressing depiction of the American judicial system and the Black male expertise that continues to be far too near actuality.