The Knife: Nnamdi Asomugha’s tense chamber drama about a late-night police encounter

The Knife is an 81-minute chamber drama directed by and starring Nnamdi Asomugha that follows an ordinary American family in an unnamed city after a late-night incident leads to a police encounter.

Late one night, construction worker Chris (Asomugha) drinks, takes pills and checks on daughters Kendra and Ryley (Amari Alexis Price, Aiden Gabrielle Price) before joining his wife Alex (Aja Naomi King). A noise downstairs precedes a crime; police arrive to find a middle-aged white woman bleeding and unconscious on the kitchen floor. Detective Carlsen (Melissa Leo) suspects the family are hiding something. Asomugha co-wrote the screenplay with Mark Duplass.

The review says the film’s restraint and single setting underline the charged tension that can accompany encounters between people of colour and the police. Its theatrical intensity and an audacious ending—where a more conventional film might only be starting—leave The Knife as a compact, intense chamber piece.

Key Topics

Culture, The Knife, Nnamdi Asomugha, Mark Duplass, Aja Naomi King, Melissa Leo