Directors: Brandon Christensen
Writers: Brandon Christensen, Ryan Christensen
Cinematographer: Clayton Moore
Editing: Brandon Christensen, Rob Grant
Music: Justin A. Martell (Music Supervisor)
Police bodycams are a hot topic, either because they’re not releasing the footage when there is something bad on their end, or because something is released, usually under public pressure, showing the reality of a lot of situations that didn’t play out as the initial report would have us believe. Bodycam, from director Brandon Christensen, plays with this in his ‘found-footage film.
Office Jackson (Jaime M. Callica) and Officer Bryce (Sean Rogerson) attend a call for a potential disturbance in a rough neighbourhood. One that Jackson comes from, and one that Bryce insists is full of nothing but “tweakers.” The relationship between Jackson, the Black officer, and Bryce, the white officer, is interesting from the moment the film begins. You can tell these two are close and have been working together for some time, but the subtle racism and derogatory remarks from Bryce show his more privileged upbringing. We learn in the film later that Jackson’s mother still lives in the neighbourhood and helps with some of the homeless population, and she doesn’t have high regard for what her son has chosen to do; the first time we see her, she is telling her some, “I told you not to come around here with the uniform.”
The two officers visit the house where the call came from and make their way through the building, with Jackson finding a woman upstairs, and Bryce finding a man downstairs who approaches him with something wrapped up in a blanket. Fearing for his safety, Bryce shoots and kills this man, leading the night down a never-ending spiral of twists and turns.
Bryce doesn’t want to call it in because, as he puts it, once the bodycam footage from his camera gets out, he’ll be torn to shreds by the public. Jackson begs to do things differently, saying people will be able to see the truth on the video, but Bryce refuses.
As they visit several other people in an effort to get help in removing and wiping the bodycam footage, the two are constantly caught by different crowds of the homeless population, at times, barricading roads and repeating the same line about the officers taking something from them. It’s creepy, and how they manage to follow and know where the officers are heading is odd as well. And as the night continues, Bryce gets wilder with his decision-making, escalating the situation all in an effort to protect himself.
There’s some topical subject matter in Bodycam, but the film chooses not to go too deep into the discussion. It’s light, it’s there, but the film, after throwing an idea into the air, often veers toward focusing on thrills for thrills’ sake. By the time you enter the last fifteen minutes of the film, although it’s fast-paced and plenty is going on, it doesn’t feel like a great wrap-up of the topics the film has thrown into its frames throughout its rather short runtime, leaving me wanting more.
Performances by Callica and Rogerson are fine, but some production elements are too desired. The film doesn’t look as dirty as the characters portray the world they’re in. By the final act, some special effects really took me out of the film with their subpar, cheap quality, especially in the found-footage style, which usually works better by hiding in darkness to mask low costs.
(Screener provided to Explosion Network.
Read about our review and ethics policy here.)
