Tyrel

Set during the weekend following Donald Trump’s inauguration as U.S. president in 2017, Tyrel is a peculiar psychological thriller. Written and directed by Sebastián Silva, the film stars Jason Mitchell as New York restaurateur Tyler. (The film’s title, a butchered version of the central character’s name, is an early hint of unintentional but baked-in racial division in the story.) Tyler, an African-American, accompanies his white friend Johnny (Christopher Abbott) to the Catskills for a wintry weekend gathering of Johnny’s all-white male friends—and friends of those friends—at a house in snow-covered woods. Given the beery, frat-house vibe of Johnny’s pals, viewers might well fear the worst: that Tyler has fallen into the hands of white supremacists. But that’s not what happens. Quite simply, Tyler increasingly feels ill-fitting in a 48-hour stag party with a large group of dopey white guys, despite how inviting and solicitous they all are, even as he gets more drunk and uncomfortable. Silva has cleverly carved out a fascinating gray area in which race plays a factor even in situations that seem utterly benign, with his camera constantly following the crosscurrents of the party’s many on-the-move guests and repeatedly landing on a distressed Tyler, who is buffeted like a guppy in a populous fish tank. Mitchell is excellent, and Michael Cera is very good as a particularly eccentric member of the group—an effete rascal who might have stepped out of a Wodehouse novel. Recommended. (T. Keogh)