DEEP COVER

(director: Tom Kingsley; screenwriters: Colin Trevorrow, Derek Connolly, Ben Ashenden, Alexander Owe; cinematographer: Will Hanke; editor: Mark Williams; music: Daniel Pemberton; cast: Bryce Dallas Howard (Kat), Orlando Bloom (Marlon), Nick Mohammed (Hugh), Sean Bean (Billings), Sonoya Mizuno (Shosh), Ian McShane (Metcalfe), Paddy Consadine (Fly), Nneka Okoye (K-Lash); Runtime: 100; MPAA Rating: R; producers: Colin Trevorrow, Walter F. Parkes, Laurie MacDonald; Metronome/Amazon Prime Video; 2025-UK)

“The amiable comedy gets a goofy performance by Bloom.”

Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz

Tom Kingsley (“Black Pond”/”The Darkest Universe”) directs this one-joke spoof, that’s
 mildly amusing, lacks spontaneity, the characters are stereotypes, and the story is not fresh . It’s written by Colin Trevorrow, Derek Connolly, Ben Ashenden, and Alexander Owe.

Kat (Bryce Dallas Howard) is an American actress who teaches at a workshop comedy improv. Marlon (Orlando Bloom) is a struggling method actor and Hugh (Nick Mohammed) is a timid tech office worker bullied at work. Both Marlon and Hugh are students in Kat’s classes. Detective Billings (Sean Bean), of the London Metro Police, asks Kat to earn some easy money and act like a drug dealer playing undercover cops with her two students to check on a local store for selling counterfeit cigarettes.

At the store, there’s present a dangerous organized crime gang: the kingpin, Fly (Paddy Consadine), his right-hand man Shosh (Sonoya Mizuno); and, their drug supplier Metcalfe (Sonoya Mizuno). Billings lets them continue with their ruse to bring down the drug ring.

The amiable comedy gets a goofy performance by Bloom. But the film never quite works.

It played at the Tribeca Film Festival.

REVIEWED ON 6/20/2025  GRADE: C+
dennisschwartzreviews.com