A young street magician (Jacob Latimore) is left to care for his little sister after their parents passing and turns to illegal activities to keep a roof over their heads. When he gets in too deep, his sister is kidnapped and he is forced to use his magic and brilliant mind to save her.

J.D. Dillard‘s ambitious feature debut successfully blends a gritty urban tale with comic book nourish realism and a dash of sci-fi thrown in to dismiss the less grounded elements to become something bracingly original if not entirely perfect.

Sleight opens on Bo, (Jacob Latimore) a savvy street magician whose magical talents are matched by his gift for affable gab. Transfixed, his audience is enthralled as Bo levitates items in the palm of his hand resulting in a rain of bills into his hungry, overturned hat on the sidewalk. Our magic man collects his money and heads home to squirrel away his earnings and take care of his adorable younger sister Tina (Storm Reid) with the assistance of neighbor and friend Georgi (Sasheer Zamata). The pair are a scrappy family left to fend for themselves after both parents passed, leaving them in a small home in Los Angeles.

Enter Holly (Seychelle Gabriel), a beautiful, if troubled youth who works as a waitress at a restaurant that Bo tends to perform in front of. The two strike up a relationship and fall for one another. Of course Holly has her own demons to escape. Then there is Bo’s unfortunate habit of running with the wrong crowd. Yes they deal drugs, and yes, the scene-stealing kingpin Angelo (Dulé Hill) is like a father to Bo, and yes, it REALLY helps pay the bills, but well, drugs.

All of the elements seem to be teetering in a wobbly balance until Bo is involved in some ultra shady dealings with Angelo and his crew that results in Tina getting kidnapped leaving Bo to unravel the mess he has created.

The film plays in a persuasively interesting way that doesn’t command your attention as much as it invites you to observe. The plot weaves threads of domestic, South Central Kitchen Sink drama with Crime thriller suspense and Comic book, sci-fi heroism in a strangely reserved way that makes everything work.

There are some missteps though. While the tonalities of the different genres are perfectly balanced, we can’t help but question some of the decisions made by the characters in the film. The impeccably framed and shot movie looks like a million bucks thanks to Cinematographer Ed Wu, Production Designer Susannah Honey with Art Direction by Megan Sunzeri. As great as the film looks though, it is striking that the villain in the movie is the one with the strongest moral compass. The characters will occasionally make decisions that make little sense other than to further dig themselves into a more precarious situation. Yes we need to see them suffer but sheesh!

Despite the sometimes ludicrous decisions and the even more incredulous finale we are treated to uniformly solid performances from every member of the cast.  Latimore‘s Bo is a charismatic centerpiece that easily holds our attention and sympathy despite his character’s inconsistent moves. Reid’s Tina has a great chemistry with Latimore that gels their believable relationship as survivors of a broken family. However, nobody holds a candle to Hill‘s Angelo who dominates the screen with a swagger and fiery presence that grips your attention. Wonderful work all around.

At the end fo the day Sleight is an entertaining micro-budget origin story of a hero that is going places. Not all of it works, but when it does work, it’s magic. Sleight is a successful experiment in blending disparate genres even if it can’t make sense of some of the plot holes along the way.