Bushwick is a 2017 American action thriller film directed by Jonathan Milott and Cary Murnion and written by Nick Damici and Graham Reznick. The film is about a former US Marine Hospital Corpsmen and a young graduate student who form an unlikely alliance during the invasion of their city by a mysterious, heavily-armed militia. After both are injured during the fighting, they have to work together to rescue family members and escape to the US army's extraction point for civilians.
Plot
Lucy, a second year grad student in civil engineering, and her boyfriend Jose are exiting a subway in Bushwick where they see a man on fire running down into the station. Jose runs out to see what is going on, but is immediately killed by an explosion. Lucy runs out to try to find help but gets chased by two men. They find her in a house but the men are killed by Stupe, the owner of the house. Stupe, a combat veteran, leaves his home to try to reach his family in Hoboken, Lucy joins him as she tries to get to her grandmother's house. Along the way, Stupe gets injured and trains Lucy in first aid and how to shoot a gun. When they reach Lucy's grandmother's home, they find her already dead because of heart failure. They escape as mercenaries infiltrate the home and retreat to Belinda's, Lucy's sister. Drugged up, Belinda does not realize what is going on until a mercenary breaks into the home. Stupe subdues the soldier and asks him at gunpoint to explain what is going on. The mercenary reveals that Texas is seceding from the United States and partnered with other Southern states to form the New American Coalition, with militias to infiltrate US areas, including Bushwick, for insurgency. However, they did not expect the armed resistance from the neighbourhood. Stupe convinces the mercenary to reveal the DMZ, where the US Army is extracting non-combatants: Grover Cleveland Park. Stupe knocks out the mercenary and the trio begin to make their way to the park. Along the way, they encounter James and his mother in their building. James' mother blackmails Stupe and Lucy into going to the local church where evacuees are hiding and convince the parish priest to meet up at a local laundromat to arm everyone to fight back as they head to the DMZ. James and his mother keep Belinda hostage so as to ensure Stupe and Lucy comply. Stupe and Lucy make it to the church, but when they find the priest, he shoots himself. Lucy then tells everyone to meet up at the laundromat to get guns to fight with. As Stupe and Lucy wait for James to arrive with Belinda, they briefly talk about their lives before the war, with Stupe revealing his family had actually died during the September 11 attacks, and had told Lucy he was going to Hoboken just to try to get rid of her, but is glad she stayed with him. As Stupe heads off to the washroom, he is mistakenly shot and killed by a scared teenage girl hiding inside. James arrives with Belinda and they head out for the attack. They reach the DMZ, but it is heavily guarded by the mercenaries. As the resistance fights back, Lucy and Belinda stick together and run towards the helicopters. Belinda gets shot in the leg and Lucy runs over to her. As Lucy tries to drag Belinda, she is shot in the head and dies. Belinda cries in horror as members of the resistance carry her to the helicopters. The final shot of smoke shows that the rest of New York City has been under attack as well.
On March 4, 2015, it was announced that Jonathan Milott and Cary Murnion would direct the disaster action thriller film Bushwick based on the script by Nick Damici and Graham Reznick, while producers would be XYZ Films' Nate Bolotin and Bullet Pictures' Adam Folk. Jane Levy was attached to play the female lead role of Lucy. On September 9, 2015, Dave Bautista also joined the film to play a war veteran Stupe. He and Lucy meet during a military invasion of Brooklyn and they decide to cross five blocks of Bushwick to reach the safe zone. On November 4, 2015, Brittany Snow was cast in the film replacing Levy to play her role Lucy. The score was composed by rapper and producer Aesop Rock. Lakeshore Records has released the soundtrack. Principal photography on the film began early December 2015 in Brooklyn, New York City.
Reception
Critical response
On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 47% based on 72 reviews, with an average rating of 5.44/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Bushwicks sociopolitical subtext gives it more heft than the average action thriller, but those ideas are given short shrift in what amounts to a disappointing shoot-'em-up." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 44 out of 100, based on reviews from 24 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews." Simon Crook for Empire praised the film calling it a brilliant B-movie with a political punch and called for a sequel. Geoff Berkshire at Variety wrote that "Even if the low-budget execution is uneven at times, there’s enough snap to the filmmaking, and enough raw power in the premise, to make for solid B-movie excitement. Chuck Bowen of Slant Magazine called it a "a genre film with a refreshing sense of political infrastructure".
