The Mill could’ve worked better as an episode of Black Mirror because it falls apart during the half-way mark. Joe (Lil Rel Howery) walks up in an open-air prison unsure of how he got there. He’s dressed in a suit and tells anyone who will listen he works for the Mallard Corporation. In the center of the confindment is a mill that Joe and others at the prison are expected to push each day for about 16 hours.
A neighbor (voice of Patrick Fischler) in the next cell warns him not to work too much, but they don’t mention what their quota is. Initially for Joe it’s only 50. And after a rough couple of days, where Joe hears the death of another cellmate, he rolls up his sleeves and pushes 100, being complimented by a woman’s voice while a digital images show up on the wall. Joe and others are given enough food and water to complete the daily tasks regardless of the elements. But that’s it. Whoever does the least amount of rotations or doesn’t meet their quota is killed each day.
Because Howery mainly appears on screen for much of the movie, there’s a few flashbacks of him and his wife, Kate (Karen Obilom), who is pregnant and expected to give birth any day. Almost immediately, I could understand what writer Jeffrey David Thomas and director Sean King O’Grady are doing. Working for corporations is mundane and useless and they pit employees against each other in this case, a real life of death situation. They put unrealistic quotas and duties on their workers.
The Mill has a run time of one hour and 46 minutes with credits. If they cut the hour out of the movie, they might have had an effective movie with a message that sticks. Instead, they drag this out a little too long. Eventually, his quota is outrageously increased because he did too much and is rewarded with a pen. So, they expect him to do more and more each day. And then the movie’s third act goes off the rails with a twist that pretty much nullifies the previosu 90 minutes.
This is a movie that doesn’t understand the reference of “Kill your darlings.” Because Howery is the only person who appears on screen for much time and seeing someone push a mill isn’t entertaining, there’s a lot of Joe trying to scream and overact. This movie feels as painful and tedious as pushing a mill for 16 hours.
What do you think? Please comment.
Zane Says 