A cop (Ian Casselberry) pulls over a van with no plates on a rainy L.A. night. There’s increased tension in the air of the City of Angels because of recent violence between the police and the citizens they’re supposed to protect. The cop orders the driver to get out of the car and can sense something is very wrong. A trembling, frightened woman (Anika Noni Rose, who deserves so much better than this non-part) emerges and the cop goes flying into the air.
A flashback that loops us back to the van scene introduces us to our real protagonists—Renee (Mary J. Blige) and Danny (Nat Wolff). Of course, Renee is coming back to the force after some time away due to trauma and Danny is young enough to be called the new guy even though he’s really not. Both are two-dimensional character traits designed to give a little bit of depth to the script but ultimately feel cheap and generic. Even the racial and gender dynamic of Renee feels woefully unexplored and could have added a much-needed layer of social commentary.
Renee and Danny come upon the scene with their colleague after the fact and discover carnage. A fellow cop has been brutally murdered and Renee sees something supernatural on the dash cam footage, just before it disappears forever. Of course, Renee is going to be the only one who knows the truth as a force works its way through the, well, force, cleaning up some dirty cops in ways that would make Candyman cringe. Reliable character actors like David Warshofsky and David Zayas fill out the cast, but this is really just a piece about Mary J. Blige looking through dark rooms with her flashlight for what seems like forever.
“Body Cam” has a fatal pacing problem. There are sequences of exploration by flashlight that feel like they’re never going to end, wherein tension turns to boredom. And Blige, an excellent actress in “Mudbound,” is simply poorly directed here. It's the only way to explain it. She’s capable of great emotion and depth, but she looks half-asleep at times, barely interested in the film she’s making. Part of the problem is the tinny dialogue that sounds like it was pulled out of a cop movie cliché handbook. There’s not a single scene of believable character interaction in this movie.
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