Incubated (2021): Madness marinating in a Mack Truck

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Synopsis

Sean is a Texas truck driver whose mental illness overwhelms him during the outset of the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic in the new based-on-actual-events domestic drama “Incubated”. Alarming, and ill-informed, radio newscasts propel Sean into uncontrollable hysteria, and his meds don’t appear to be furnishing their usual and dependable steadying influence. Struggling to balance his sanity and keep his family safe and protected from the virus, inexplicable events begin to haunt him. Consumed with panic, Sean traps himself inside of his 18-wheeler, refusing to leave. His emotionally drained wife, Morgan, fights fiercely to piece her family back together as Sean turns to his therapist for strength to return home.

The Good

Filmmaker GuGu E. Michaels

Considerable kudos to Director and Screenplay author GuGu E. Michaels here. While his film features graphic sex, violence and consistently raw language, he includes in a frank and adult narrative an extended and pivotal scene of Sean tearfully delivering a prayer of salvation for him and his family.  This is an extraordinarily rare moment indeed in the secular film industry. And it is a deeply moving one.

The Bad

Running the better part of two hours, this story bogs down over too many stretches, calling mightily for much more haste to the pace and faster flow.

Aiming squarely to Puncture The Politics of Fear

A vast array of our American governmental bodies, both federal and state, have done one hell of a job paralyzing the populous through the politics of fear over the past year and a half of the Coronavirus pandemic. It is rough enough for the relatively stable among us. Imagine what Covid-19 can do to those who aren’t so sound of mind. And continues to.

While “Incubated” is, on face, a character study of a man completely at the mercy of menacing mental illness, Michaels dispatches a message that resonates with even more potency. Reckless and irresponsible fear-mongering on the part of those who should know better extracts a very real, and too often times devastating, emotional toll. One that impacts far beyond what the disease may, or may not, be wreaking upon the masses.

Remember how the medical information changed practically by the hour? Like, last hour.

No names, not no Talent

Actor Chianti Jeconiah

Michaels mines performances from his cast which are roundly genuine and thoroughly believable.  In particular, Chianti Jeconiah’s Sean is, at different turns, sad, serene, schizophrenic and, ultimately, strong.

Overall

“Incubated”‘s final moments of family reconciliation, born of a present battling like hell to (quite literally in these scenes) beat down the past, are gripping.

And, as the measure of us continue striving to be during these testing times of seemingly relentless uncertainty, hopeful.

I invite you to enjoy all of my eclectic film reviews as “The Quick Flick Critic”, continually updated at https://thequickflickcritic.blogspot.com