Mickey Hardaway

This isn’t a miraculous tale of pulling oneself up by the bootstraps, but a glimpse of how life’s circumstances can drive us to take the most desperate and destructive of actions.

Even with meager resources, the filmmaker jolts you awake and makes you pay attention—delivering a necessary reality check when it comes to race, complicity, and mental health.

Mickey Hardaway is about the toll that abuse, effort, and unfortunate circumstances can take on someone. This type of narrative about artists is usually reserved for white characters.

The acting is strong all round and there's some beautiful cinematography, mostly in black and white – all of it to a point.

This deeply resonate film is such that I cannot recall a black therapist treating a black client in a story about confronting dysfunctional turmoil. Despite story issues, what is important in filmmaker Marcellus Cox's debut is his ardent plea for sanity.

Cox consistently balances humanizing and sympathizing with monsters without excusing them—a rare gift.

Taken as the story of an individual, it is idiosyncratic, well-acted and well-filmed enough to be worth a look.

The project’s low budget shows, as does Cox’s promise as a filmmaker who sees his medium as a tool for understanding.

Whatever Mickey Hardaway lacks in polish and sheen, it overdelivers in its sincerity and took guts to create.

The promise inherent in his work is unmistakable, and I commend his audacious approach. A hearty congratulations on the successful culmination of Mickey Hardaway, as they often express in the cinematic realm.