The Inevitable Defeat of Mister and Pete is the kind of movie that you will be proud to say you saw in say, ten years. Why is that you ask? It's for one reason and one reason only, well actually two reasons, and those are Skylan Brooks and Ethan Dizon. Skylan Brooks plays the indefatigable Mister and Ethan plays the vulnerable Pete, and they are absolutely amazing. The reason Defeat will be a movie you will be proud to have seen is because you'll be able to say that you say Skylan or Ethan in their first movie all those years ago. Yes, this is the first movie for both young men and you would not know that based on their performances. George Tillman surrounds the two young actors with some of the industry's very best and they not only carried their weight, they carried the film.
The movie is takes place over the summer in a Brooklyn housing project. It starts on the last day of school and we meet Mister as he realizes he's not going to get promoted to the ninth grade. The movie gets no better for Mister. He comes home to find his strung out prostitute of a mother, Gloria, played by the multi-talented Jennifer Hudson on the sofa and the diminutive Pete in his room playing his Playstation. When the inevitable happens to Gloria, Mister and Pete struggle and fight to keep going. All the while Mister holds onto this dream of becoming an actor and wants to get to an audition that once he gets the role will have him Beverly Hills. The boys starve, steal, beg, hustle, and have every right to lose the grip on their humanity, but they never do. They never give up, their will is never broken, Ethan is able to keep going because of Mister. What keeps Mister going, God only knows.
Inevitable Defeat also stars Anthony Mackie as Kris, Gloria's pimp and neighborhood drug dealer, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje as the relentless Sergeant Pike from the Housing Police, Jordin Sparks as Alice, a one time neighbor of Mister's whose moved on to bigger and better things, and Jeffrey Wright as the neighborhood bum Henry. It's an impressive cast and yet they all pale in comparison to Skylan and Ethan. Inevitable Defeat was an impressive looking film to be an independent one. Shot by cinematographer Reed Morano, you definitely get the feeling of what summertime is like in a New York City housing project. He captures it from all angles, from aerial views to down on the ground, bringing the viewer the beauty and brutality of survival of those that live there. With music by the greats Mark Isham and Alicia Keys, the music is mostly hip hop based, heavy on Alicia Keys music (she's one of the producers so that just stands to reason) while Mark's contributions were light and still impactful. I highly recommend The Inevitable Defeat of Mister and Pete, if for no other reason than to say you saw the first movie of these two burgeoning stars, and I'll see you that the theater.
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