Wheelman

And The Companies Controlling Prison Telecommunications

Now we’re talking.

When planning this week, I didn’t intend to specifically spotlight Netflix action films. But this is one of the better ones. And nothing against Ben Affleck or Chris Hemsworth, but none are truly as real as Frank Grillo. Grillo frequently appears in action movies that seem thin or contrived, but he is the most authentic actor in them by a considerable margin. Wikipedia tells me this movie has a particularly notable amount of “f” words (286 – 3.5 times a minute!) and surely most of those come from Grillo. Obviously, I lived in a vulgar, foul-mouthed environment for years, and I adjusted in many ways. But when Grillo fires up the “f” word, it makes you feel as if you’re a child, and it was scary to hear an adult swear. Scary, but also kind of exciting.

“Wheelman” isn’t re-inventing the… uh, round items… in its embrace of action movie tropes – you can squint and imagine the Liam Neeson version of this. But when Grillo, a getaway driver in the middle of a job, gets a call delivering an explicit threat, you expect the typical genre approach. The hero will weigh his options, or he’ll try to assemble some clues as to the identity of the caller. Perhaps the hero will grow protective of their family, play it safe. Or they’ll lose their composure and begin tossing threats at the voice on the other end.

Frank Grillo does not do that. Instead, he immediately curses this voice out, mocks him, and hangs up as if it’s a prank call, a nuisance. Grillo, the Wheelman of the title, has just been informed the men about to get back into his car following a violent heist are going to kill him. Grillo does not discard this information, but the way he tells this guy off is as if he heard another dopey loudmouth calling in to his favorite radio show. Like every action movie in which he appears, Grillo is automatically better than this anonymous voice making threats.

The movie’s gimmick is that it never leaves the inside of Grillo’s car. He’ll get out to take action, make a kidnapping or steal something to please the voice on the other end of the phone. But you’ll be staying in the car, watching through the windows, waiting for him to get back. There’s a terrific Tom Hardy movie from a decade ago, “Locke”, where the entire movie occurs inside the car with Hardy, but he largely makes phone calls where he gives responsible, thoughtful answers to pressing problems. “Wheelman”, in contrast, feels like “Locke” (an inexplicably suspenseful movie, despite the low stakes) crossbred with “Taken”. Like Liam Neeson in the latter film, Grillo is one of the last guys a villain wants to face in a movie like this.

This is basically a movie star audition for Grillo, so of course it got buried underneath the Netflix algorithm. This should have been the type of movie with a limited release that slowly expands and adds viewers every week. When I was down, I read about Joe Carnahan (a producer on this film) attempting to remake “Death Wish”, and demanding his Paul Kersey be either Frank Grillo or no one. The studio, of course, made the dumbest decision possible, asking, “Frank who?” and insisting on a sleepy, no-longer bankable Bruce Willis. Eli Roth ended up directing that movie, rather anonymously, to box office indifference. And yet that movie, a flop, inevitably stalked basic cable for several years, because the system is rigged. Grillo could have been turned into a legit megastar, but he wasn’t, the movie did nothing for Bruce Willis, and maybe we could have had a “Death Wish” remake that wasn’t right off the rack. Unfortunately, #darkesttimeline.

Given that he appears in five or six movies a year, Grillo must love what he does. But typically, in movies, he seems utterly annoyed that a plotline has formed around him. This anger is reflected in the movie’s gimmick, as if he’s forced to take the wheel even if he’d rather be somewhere else. The movie is a thriller; it’s designed to thrill. Frank Grillo hates this. Most action heroes, from Willis to Statham, have a sense of theatricality to their characters. They’re going to kill the villain, and they’re going to look good doing it. There may be a quip or two. Frank Grillo always acts as if he left dinner on the stove, and he’s hungry, and he absolutely, maybe irrationally, blames the villain for not being able to enjoy dinner. He’s already pissed. In that regard, he feels like the action hero for our times.

I wanted to share this link detailing an incredible story about petty rich people fighting over an empire, an ideal weekend read for any of you that are curious. It just happened to catch my attention because it’s about the family behind Smart Communications, who charge money to allow prisoners to communicate with family via email or phone. This is a plainly punitive system that people misunderstand likely in the same way they currently misunderstand tariffs. By placing a price tag on valuable and often-necessary communication, most see it as a reasonable punishment of the inmates currently incarcerated. Of course, why would an inmate be able to pay those fees? That money is likely paid for by the innocent family of the convict, or the innocent friends and lovers. Like the tariffs, it punishes people who do not need or deserve to be punished in the eyes of those supporting that system.

Smart Communications is one of many industries charging considerably more than market value so inmates can have advocates and connections on the outside, valuable and necessary for when their sentences conclude. I had a different system, one that charged $3.15 per fifteen minute call. I understand the Biden-implemented Martha Wright-Reed Act was created to cap costs, though if this current administration has proven anything, it’s that the smallest minds with the most money can easily undo progress. During COVID, when a “federal emergency” was declared for federal institutions, calls and emails were free, which led to a small movement to keep them free. That did not take because of the advocacy of companies like Smart Communications. Reading the piece in the link, it makes perfect sense that people who want to take money out of the pockets of those who might rehabilitate convicts are given to greed, bad taste and stupidity.

Be here next week for another five days of SEQUELS!