Every choice you make counts in A Hundred Lies. The film by Rouzbeh Heydari is shot in a documentary style, capturing one of the most natural portrayals in cinema this year. Depending on the time of night, you could convince me that this is not a movie and that the brilliant performers on screen are not actors. The chemistry between them makes you feel as if you are people-watching down at your local watering hole.
Ricky (Rob Raco) works at a shady bar in Toronto while trying to support his music career and his mother, who is lying on her deathbed. He visits her all he can. Even though she is unable to respond, he still gives her reassuring words, playing all his new music from his phone on her chest.
Calling the bar where he works shady is an understatement. Kingsley (Michael Xavier), the owner, does not mess around. He leads a drug-dealing operation, and every employee there is affiliated. Ricky is practically a boy scout, always trying to make the right decision. With the music he’s been making going nowhere, he needs more money to pay for his mom’s medical bills. He asks for more hours, but Kingsley threatens to ‘whoop his a*s’ instead.
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“…Ricky works at a shady bar while trying to support his music career and his mother…”
That is when his coworker, Damian (Dana Abraham), hears his story and offers a helping hand. Being a runner introduced him to a few people, and he takes Ricky to meet yet another shady character, Terrence (Brandon McKnight). He is an old-school gangster-label owner who is led by intimidation. No one just walks away from a deal with Terrence at Reaper Records. Ricky is left with an impossible choice. No one knows what a future with Terrence may hold, but his dream is to reach an audience. He now faces the decision: is your dream worth risking everything to pursue?
Rob Raco fully embodies Ricky. With a lifelong background in music, he was able to put everything he had into the character, and it was clear in his performance. He is actually singing and playing the guitar. He co-wrote the story and some of the song lyrics. This is a film where every actor shines. Part of what makes it great is you can see how much of each person involved is in it. Without Rob Raco though it would be a different film. The romance portrayed by Humberly González as Fiona is one I will always remember.
A Hundred Lies shows the journey of an artist in the twenty-first century. You either are forced to work odd jobs while making your art, to get nowhere, or you’re catapulted to fame, which comes, as Terrence says, “by people playing your songs on TikTok and s**t.”
As a viewer, you rarely get to see an artist’s struggle from the beginning. You are given no idea of what goes into each song and recording, as well as all of the decisions and tribulations that come with fame. We have only seen it in mainstream films, even in the street crime genre, specifically with Straight Out of Compton and very personally with Bohemian Rhapsody.
"…the journey of an artist in the twenty-first century..."
