You know that feeling when you're watching a movie and you think you’ve got it pegged? You’re sitting there, nodding along, thinking "Okay, I see where this is going." Then, about an hour in, the rug isn't just pulled out—it’s set on fire. That is exactly what happened with A Lot of Nothing.
Mo McRae’s directorial debut is a weird, jagged little pill of a movie. It starts as one thing—a sleek, high-end social thriller about a wealthy Black couple—and ends up as something far more chaotic. Honestly, it’s a bit of a mess. But it's the kind of mess that you can't stop thinking about because it's so desperately trying to say something about the world we live in right now.
What is A Lot of Nothing actually about?
Basically, we meet James (Y’lan Noel) and Vanessa (Cleopatra Coleman). They are living the dream. Huge house, great careers, everything looks perfect. But then they see a news report: a police officer has shot an unarmed teenager. The kicker? That officer is their next-door neighbor, Brian (played by Justin Hartley, who is a long way from his This Is Us charm here).
Vanessa isn't just angry. She’s vibrating with fury. James is the "let’s be rational" guy, the lawyer who wants to trust the system even when the system is clearly broken. It’s a classic setup for a home invasion thriller, except the "invaders" are the people who live next door.
Vanessa decides she’s done with the polite microaggressions and the quiet endurance. She confronts Brian, and things spiral fast. Before you know it, Brian is tied to a chair in their garage. It’s a bold, high-stakes premise that feels like it’s going to be a tense "bottle movie."
Then the guests arrive.
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The Dinner Party from Hell
Just when the tension is at a breaking point, James’s brother Jamal (Shamier Anderson) and his pregnant fiancée Candy (Lex Scott Davis) show up for dinner. They have no idea there’s a cop held hostage just a few rooms away.
This is where the movie gets complicated. Jamal and Candy aren't like James and Vanessa. They don't have the same wealth or the same "polished" exterior. The movie starts poking at class within the Black community, showing how James and Vanessa’s success has distanced them from the very people they think they're fighting for. It’s awkward. It’s uncomfortable. It’s also where the script starts to lose its grip a little bit.
That Ending: What the hell happened?
If you've watched the movie, you're probably here because the ending left you scratching your head. The big "gotcha" moment happens when they realize the victim of the police shooting wasn't actually Black. He was white.
This revelation completely shatters Vanessa's moral high ground. She had built this entire vigilante mission on the assumption of a racially motivated crime. When that assumption is removed, she and James are left with the reality of what they’ve done: they kidnapped a man.
The climax is a blur of violence and bad decisions. Candy goes into labor in the middle of the chaos. Brian tries to escape. In a moment of pure, panicked moral collapse, James shoots and kills Brian.
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The movie doesn't end with a police siren or a courtroom scene. It ends with James and Vanessa, broken and hollowed out, looking at a photo of their newborn nephew. There’s no justice. There’s no resolution. Just the weight of a life taken and a future ruined. It’s a cynical, pitch-black conclusion that suggests that in the search for justice, we can easily become the very monsters we’re trying to fight.
Why the movie is so polarizing
Critics and audiences are all over the place on this one. On Rotten Tomatoes, it’s sitting with a 48% score, while Metacritic has it at a 55. Some people love the audacity of it. They see it as a daring satire in the vein of Sorry to Bother You or Get Out. Others think it’s a tonal disaster.
The script, written by McRae and Sarah Kelly Kaplan, uses a very specific kind of heightened, almost stilted dialogue. It sounds like a Twitter thread come to life. Sometimes it works; sometimes it feels like you're being lectured by a first-year sociology student.
The film also tackles a lot of "buzzword" topics:
- Code-switching
- Respectability politics
- Colorism
- The impotence of social media activism
The problem is that it tries to do everything at once. By the time the third act rolls around, the movie is juggling so many subplots—familial drama, medical emergencies, relationship reveals—that the central theme of police brutality starts to feel like an afterthought.
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Is A Lot of Nothing worth your time?
Look, if you want a neat, tidy thriller with a clear message, this isn't it. But if you like movies that take big, messy swings, you should probably check it out.
The performances are top-tier. Cleopatra Coleman is haunting as a woman who has finally snapped. Y’lan Noel plays the "uptight professional" with a level of nuance that makes his eventual breakdown even more painful to watch. And Justin Hartley is genuinely unsettling as Brian—smug, defensive, and ultimately terrifyingly human.
Actionable Insights for Your Next Movie Night
If you’re planning to watch A Lot of Nothing, or if you just finished it, keep these things in mind to get the most out of the experience:
- Watch the opening shot carefully. It’s a long, unbroken take that sets the tone for the entire film. It shows you the world James and Vanessa have built for themselves and how fragile it really is.
- Pay attention to the names. The movie explicitly points out the "whiteness" of names like James and Vanessa compared to Jamal and Candy. It’s a subtle (and sometimes not-so-subtle) look at how we perform identity.
- Don't look for a "hero." There aren't any. Every character in this movie is deeply flawed, and the film wants you to sit with that discomfort.
- Compare it to other social satires. If you liked The Menu or American Fiction, you’ll find a lot of similar DNA here, even if the execution is different.
Ultimately, A Lot of Nothing is a movie about the gap between who we want to be and what we’re actually capable of when pushed to the edge. It’s messy, it’s frustrating, and it’s a lot to process. But in a world of cookie-cutter blockbusters, at least it’s trying to be something different.