Creating any film about police brutality will require a delicate touch. When handled well, these films can elicit powerful emotions of righteous anger, heartbreaking despair, and the spark of hope. When handled poorly, a film can be exploitative, cruel, and can cause active harm to the cause it attempts to cover. The Killing of Kenneth Chamberlain leans more into the former, thanks in part to the powerhouse performance of veteran character actor Frankie Faison and the decision to frame the violence that occurs in a gripping but tastefully respectful way.

The Killing of Kenneth Chamberlain is based on the murder of Black veteran and former police officer Kenneth Chamberlain, who accidentally triggered his LifeAid medical alert necklace. When police officers arrived on the scene to respond, tensions came to a fatal boiling point as Kenneth Chamberlain and the officers struggled to communicate.

Frankie Faison, best known for playing Barney in The Silence of the Lambs, is the keystone of The Killing of Kenneth Chamberlain. Without Faison, the film simply couldn’t work. Faison’s interpretation of Chamberlain is one laced with emotion, often having to carry the story on his shoulders thanks to the intimate way it’s shot. Faison runs the dramatic gauntlet, juggling indignation, fear, exhaustion, and reassurance in a complex performance that makes The Killing of Kenneth Chamberlain as gripping as it is.

While Frankie Faison is the primary actor, the three officers played by Enrico Natale (who also serves as editor), Steve O’Connell, and Ben Marten all contribute to The Killing of Kenneth Chamberlain. Of the three, O’Connell impresses the most, with his performance rising in frustration and rage as the film’s events impact his character. Natale and Marten are a bit more one-note as the respective Good Cop and Racist Cop, but they perform their parts well. Natale, in particular, rises to the occasion when he gets the chance to.

A large part of The Killing of Kenneth Chamberlain‘s success lies in how director David Midell and Natale choose to portray the film’s events. The Killing of Kenneth Chamberlain is often shot with extreme close-ups directly in the actors’ faces. Every bead of sweat, popping vein, and creased eyebrow can be seen in gripping detail. The film is also edited to be shown in real-time, creating an exhaustively realistic sense of pacing and allowing the emotions to rise and fall organically throughout.

The Killing of Kenneth Chamberlain also serves as a valid example of the difference between plot and story. While the title tends to spoil the conclusion of the film, the execution is far from predictable. It’s a gripping and viciously thrilling story, with the characters always coming so close to an understanding, only for someone to escalate or miscommunicate to force the conflict to a new, greater scale.

From beyond a film critic’s perspective to a film analyst’s one, The Killing of Kenneth Chamberlain has both good and problematic aspects. For the former, there is something to applaud for how the film portrays mental illness and the lack of preparedness of American emergency response systems. The Killing of Kenneth Chamberlain is as much a critique on how the police treat the mentally ill in addition to how they treat Black people. While the police officers present aren’t caricatures, The Killing of Kenneth Chamberlain is unafraid to portray how unprepared, callous, and oppressively powerful they can be over their fellow citizens and human beings.

That being said, The Killing of Kenneth Chamberlain does fall into the trope of the Good Cop, a troubling character that tends to emerge in films like this. Enrico Natale, the film’s producer, and editor, plays Officer Rossi. Rossi is the only officer of the police that seems to possess a moral compass. He spends most of the film attempting to act as a moral compass, defiantly talking back to his superiors, and attempting to act as a voice of reason. In a welcome subversion of the trope, Rossi is ineffective. In his best moments, he’s stepping to the sidelines and allowing his fellow officers to commit hate crimes. At his worst, he participates by preventing intervention.

A deceptively simple film, The Killing of Kenneth Chamberlain is a gripping and honorably respectful interpretation of the actual murder of Kenneth Chamberlain. The simplistic nature of the story and a single problematic trope doesn’t detract from the film’s overall quality, thanks in large part to the cast of performers that get to show their talents. Midell’s directorial instincts are likewise on strong display. Thanks to the realistic way the story is told, The Killing of Kenneth Chamberlain is an engaging thriller that never veers into the pitfalls that lesser films would.

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The Killing of Kenneth Chamberlain

8.5

Score

8.5/10

Pros

• Powerhouse performance from Frankie Faison
• Talented ensemble
• Respectful storytelling
• Grippingly shot & edited

Cons

• Problematic Good Cop trope
• A fairly simple story in plotting