Diractors is an ongoing series in which Hassle writer Jack Draper examines films, new and old, whose directors are better known for their work in front of the camera.
It’s a classic case of they don’t make them like they used to when it comes to the impact– or lack thereof– in Michael Jai White’s remake of Trouble Man (no Marvin Gaye score found here, sadly). In a moment of cinematic history when we live with fewer action stars than ever, MJW is happy to not only frame himself as a leading man, but stage his film as if it’s the fourth entry in a Trouble Man franchise. Not to say this lean, bareknuckle thriller isn’t bogged down in overexplaining itself like a sequel, but it’s got the gravitas we’d hope from one. For fans of what White brought to the swagger of Black Dynamite with all its dry humor and love for the Blaxploitation, his new picture scratches that same itch. There is just such a confidence here that is really easy to admire, even if White has made a sequel to a movie that doesn’t exist.
Jaxen (Michael Jai White) is a former cop turned PI in contemporary Atlanta who is hired to find the missing R&B star Jahari (La La Anthony). Now he is involved in even more nefarious activity with “helping people out of tight situations.” Jaxen tries to light up an old flame with Gina (Gillian White, Michael Jai White’s real life partner) after a very buzzing meet-cute– especially nice for two people over 50. R&B executive Branes Holden (Orlando Jones) and Jaxen are running in the same circles, and the corruption to get Jahari back along with Money (Method Man) only spirals so much with this standard plotting. It’s nice to see White not try to say anything more than what’s on the screen while making a contemporary martial arts/Blaxploitation film. The world is broken and folks aren’t getting any younger. With its dry humor and contemplative ideas as text, the material lands in kind of an idiosyncratic, Jim Jarmusch way.
Michael Jai White is at an interesting spot in his already-niche career. As I’ve written about a couple times in the Diractors series, the character actor turned director is a category in itself, as their careers tend to have more versatility than someone we traditionally think of as a movie star. Despite this, White is someone whose admiration for martial arts and appeal as a genuine throwback to Blaxploitation stardom allows him to keep up in relevancy. Of course, Black Dynamite (great movie) looms large over his involvement in what he has done since, and especially the feel of Trouble Man. Moments of levity– the complaint of “I’ve been in five fights in two days,” a certain Bruce Lee joke, a gun being pointed at Jaxen and the way he talks his way out of it– could have fit right into his direct Blaxploitation homage. White knows how fun Michael Stradford’s script is, but decides to take it in a different direction sometimes, using this to be a grounded drama instead. For someone who started his time as a leading man playing Mike Tyson, his gravitas is consistently used to great effect in his past movies. As far as 95-minute movies, give me as many of these as you’d like, MJW
Trouble Man
2025
dir. Michael Jai White
95 min.
