The Man in My Basement
In 1990s’ Long Island, a rich white businessman hires the basement of a black man on his uppers.
Guilt-edged: Willem Dafoe and Corey Hawkins
Photo courtesy of Walt Disney Studios.
For such a quintessentially African-American movie, based on the 2004 novel by Walter Mosley, it is perhaps surprising that this adaptation marks the directorial debut of the London-born theatre director Nadia Latif. Furthermore, for practical reasons, much of the film was shot in Wales. Not that one would notice, as Latif – former associate director at the Young Vic – has perfectly captured the small-town claustrophobia of Sag Harbor, Long Island, and harnessed largely persuasive performances from her three American stars. Even so, a theatricality hangs over the production, and while the subject embraces everything from racism to evil via the conduit of collective guilt, there is a similarity to many psychological thrillers set in large houses in the woods.
But the premise is promising. Once we have established that Charles Blakey (Corey Hawkins) is in debt, cannot find work and is in danger of having his family home repossessed by the bank, we know that the potential Man in his Basement can but be a mixed blessing. And with the perfectly cast Willem Dafoe as the Stranger with an Agenda, the anticipatory juices start flowing. And while Blakey suffers his hallucinations and nightmares, what Anniston Bennet (Dafoe) offers is perhaps more disturbing still. It is, indeed, a pact with the Devil, and a Faustian one at that.
All this would have worked much better on stage (at the Young Vic?) and here just mixes horror cliché with the philosophical musings of, say, Samuel Beckett. Nevertheless, Nadia Latif does exhibit promise as a director and there is a stark originality in her play of ideas. It is just a shame that the character of Blakey, given a one-dimensional reading by Corey Hawkins (so promising in Straight Outta Compton), is no match for Willem Dafoe in this power struggle of one-upmanship.
JAMES CAMERON-WILSON
Cast: Corey Hawkins, Willem Dafoe, Anna Diop, Jonathan Ajayi, Gershwyn Eustache Jnr, Tamara Lawrance, Pamela Nomvete, Brian Bovell, Lizzie Lomas.
Dir Nadia Latif, Pro Diane Houslin, John Giwa-Amu, Dave Bishop and Len Rowles, Ex Pro Corey Hawkins and Willem Dafoe, Screenplay Walter Mosley and Nadia Latif, based on the 2004 novel by Walter Mosley, Ph Ula Pontikos, Pro Des Kathrin Eder, Ed Mark Towns, Music Robert Akiki and Aubrey Lowe, Costumes Lynn Ollie, Sound Chad Orororo, Dialect coach Bridgett Jackson.
Andscape/B.O.B. Filmhouse/Good Gate Media/Protagonist Pictures-Walt Disney Studios/Disney+.
114 mins. UK/USA. 2025. UK and US Rel: 12 September 2025. Cert. 15.
