Spades (dir. Johnny Yong Bosch)

By: Adam Freed

The casualties of war ripple far beyond those buried in Arlington National Cemetery.  Beyond those who traded their lives for the freedoms that Americans have enjoyed for centuries, are those lost to the collateral damage of armed conflict, including many of the soldiers who survive, only to return home facing the demons of post traumatic stress disorder.  Cinematically, the invisible cost of military involvement has been depicted from almost every imaginable angle.  From the unthinkable acts of a renegade faction of soldiers in Oliver Stone’s Platoon (1986), to the long term compounding impact of the taking of human life in American Sniper (2014), there is unquestionably a price to pay for men and women lucky enough to return from military service.  This well-worn ground is given an interesting new direction in Spades, an energetic independent action-thriller from Hollywood veteran writer and director Johnny Yong Bosch (Ark Exitus, Bleach).

After losing his best friend while serving in the Middle East, Detective James Bishop has returned to a neo-noir California city carrying with him the weight of his service and sacrifice.  In the present, Bishop, captured with layered depth by Jason Narvy (Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie) is drawn to a series of brutal murders all connected by a familiar calling card from his past.  Spades takes a little time to get up to full speed as an action film, but once it introduces the titular mask-wearing vigilante, it is as if Bosch’s film shifts into fifth gear.  Shot on a tight $50,000 budget, Spades far outpaces the confines of its construction.  Johnny Yong Bosch proves to have a brilliantly tuned sense for maximizing the impact of action sequences without breaking the bank. To this end, Spades represents a highwater mark for independent action set piece construction.  

While initially there doesn’t appear to be a great deal to consider by way of plot in Spades, it becomes clear towards the end of the film’s second act that there is more going on than initially meets the eye.  Detective Bishop’s attempt to reconcile with an estranged daughter he loses in the wake of his PTSD, works as a tonal shift within the film, but never presents itself as essential to his character’s path.  Audiences may find themselves counting the moments awaiting the return of the skull-masked vigilante, who presents as a distant echo of Marvel’s The Punisher, which is an endorsement of the character’s screen gravity more than a critique of the character or pacing within Bosch’s thriller.  It is incredibly difficult to find a new angle on a film rooted in vigilante justice, and despite the limitations placed on it due to budgetary restraints, Spades is as inventive and violent and it is broodingly satisfying. 

Target Score 7.5/10 - Memorable vigilante anti-heroes are tough to sell, and are even more difficult to weaponize effectively on screen.  Thankfully writer and director Johnny Yong Bosch understands a thing or two about the power of coiled energy.  The result of which is his initially pensive, and eventually explosive, neo-noir thriller Spades.