Of late, the US has seen increased legal immigration of gray-skinned people as their country's in major upheaval - and of course the American public is as split on this topic as on everything else. In front of this backdrop, twenty-something Afro-American Nick (Isaiah Jimenez) is forced by his mother (Jana Collette Henry) to get a job - which would awfully spoil his plans to one day open a weed store with his best friend, white rich kid and stoner Kyle (Casey Starchak), who for some reason really believes he's black though. So the two need money quick, but Kyle for some reason is too proud to ask his father (Essex O'Brien) for a loan, so the only option they believe still open to them is to go for a grant from the Goldstein Organisation. There's just one problem, old man Goldstein (Don Larson) has decided to give his grants exclusively to gray immigrants this year - something which neither Nick nor Kyle are - but they figure with lots of makeup and some quick training on how to behave "gray" they can pass as grays. Once at Goldstein headquarters, Nick soon falls in love at first sight with lovely Zeka (Michelle Nuñez), but since she's gray he can never tell her the truth about himself, and suddenly feels like the fraud he actually is. But Zeka has a secret as well, she's actually a federal agent investigating the Goldstein Organisation, as there are more than a few irregularities in their finances, and the very people responsible for the grants in question, Goldstein's right hand man Madoff (Dennis Mallen) and Madoff's assistant Janice (Madi Jarrard) might be directly involved ...

A film that definitely has its heart in the right place, as it investigates the deeper layers of racial relations and latent racism through a comedic lense that sometimes almost works like a mirror - and in its best moments, the film works admirably well. That said, Gray People just tries to pack too many things into one movie, it tries to be too much at once, from social commentary to stoner comedy to comedic thriller with everything in between, and thus suffers a bit from its almost two hours running time and its lack of conciseness. But that said, when the movie's funny it's really funny, and there are plenty of these moments in Gray People to entertain throughout.

review © by Mike Haberfelner

 

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