Rapper Freddie Gibbs makes his feature film debut as an actor in Down with the King. He plays Money Merc, a famous rap star which announces his retirement on Twitter while developing a new album in the countryside. His manager (David Krumholtz) becomes increasingly worried that living in the country has brought him isolated and tries to draw him back into the public sphere with an American tour to promote the release of his new songs. But Merc’s mind is entirely elsewhere, having built tight-knit friendships with the town’s residents, including Bob (Bob Tarasuk) and Michaele (Jamie Neumann), with whom he shares mutual affection.
Gibbs does most of the film’s heavy lifting. Without him at the front and center of the picture, it wouldn’t have been as fascinating as it is. Having never acted before in his career, let’s say that he gives one heck of a breakout performance and showcases the same level of emotional nuance as a veteran actor likely would in a film like this. Gibbs feels particularly drawn to the story because he fully understands the character he plays on a deep, cellular level. He’s not only showing part of himself on screen, especially during sequences where he raps with his newfound friends and explains the difference between rap and hip hop. He also plays a character whose emotional instability is the film’s primary focus.
In quieter scenes, where he has conversations with Bob or Michaele, Gibbs shows his transfixing acting skills. He magnifies the screen through intimate scenes with the two characters, or even when Bob and Merc are on the lookout for a skunk whose foul odor has been plaguing his cottage. This specific scene is the perfect encapsulation of where Merc’s mindset is at–he no longer wants to compose music or spend time in that world anymore. Instead, he wants to live life on his terms and become closer to himself than when he is touring through his Money Merc personality.
And his relationship with the town’s side characters is terrific, with both actors giving authentic and raw performances that provide the right amount of emotional balance to Gibbs’ acting skills. Everyone is in tandem with how they want to convey emotion. Bob is an open book, while Michaele keeps her feelings to herself and pairs well with Merc, whose emotions are also all over the place. We can never read what he feels inside, but we understand that he’d rather spend the rest of his life in solitude than make music for an online crowd that feels more distant than receptive.
These aspects are the best parts of Down with the King, a film that contains more raw power than most mainstream dramas, solely because of Freddie Gibbs’ ability to carry every scene he is in. But it’s a shame that most of the film doesn’t necessarily want to explore Merc’s retirement other than staying in surface-level ideations of what he thinks of himself as an artist and the tight friendship he builds with Bob and Michaele.
His relationship with Michaele is one of the film’s most vital elements and partly why he may want to quit music altogether. But the film doesn’t spend as much time as it should selling the relationship to the audience and prefers to move immediately to the part where they make love instead of sealing their passion first and foremost. The same can be said with Bob—they quickly become friends, but the film rarely spends time with them for us to appreciate their friendship. Granted, the scenes they have together have a natural charm because they’re both non-actors who are having fun with each other. They’re not faking their friendship, and director Diego Ongaro beautifully captures it in a cinéma vérité aesthetic that gives the film the realism it needs for us to care about the characters. However, one wishes the film were longer and spent less time with Merc in his cottage, hunting for a skunk, and more with his newfound friends.
Still, Down with the King is one to watch only because of Freddie Gibbs’ riveting performance. If Merc was played by someone else, it’s hard to believe that the film would have the same amount of emotional pull as it did. He pours his heart and soul into every single amount of his performance that it’s hard not to laud him and know that he has a bright future in the film industry as an actor, should he want to pursue his skills further. With a better script and tighter emotional relationships between characters, who knows how far he’ll go as an actor? But he’ll undoubtedly be one to watch for sure…
Film: Rating: 
Director: Diego Ongaro
Stars: Freddie Gibbs, Bob Tarasuk, Jamie Neumann, David Krumholtz, Sharon Washington, and Carl Volz
Runtime: 101 minutes
Country: USA
