Although it suffers from slow pacing, Akilla’s Escape remains an engaging neo-noir mainly off the strength of its two lead performances.

| Original Score: 7.5/10 | Jul 12, 2024

It’s an uneven puzzle: eye-catching but not entirely convincing when put together.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jul 25, 2023

Williams is a strong presence, but the story’s elements — past and present — blur together in a monotonous whole.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Sep 13, 2022

The editing and cinematography are heavily stylised, which can make the film feel like a flighty distended music video at times, but Williams and Mpumlwana’s alert, compelling performances keep things grounded in grit.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 25, 2022

It’s all not quite enough to get Officer’s film to live up to its pretensions, which are also present in the overlong opening credits discoursing on Jamaican history and corruption; themes hinted at later but which never entirely bloom.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Aug 23, 2022

The themes explored lack nuance, the storytelling doesn't craft an engaging pace, and the performances are near-universally bland.

| Original Score: 4/10 | Jun 5, 2022

The final moments are not quite convincing, denoting fragilities in the execution, but the director's formidably hopeful message sticks in our minds.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jun 28, 2021

What at first appears to be mere flashbacks to Akilla's formative years gradual takes on the heft and structure of a separate storyline, one that both informs but also reflects the present-day plot.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jun 15, 2021

Amid an accelerating pace, Williams gives a powerfully controlled performance, creating a character whose awareness/readiness level is high. Physically, Akilla is set on simmer until violence becomes necessary, which it does.

| Original Score: B-plus | Jun 14, 2021

Saul Williams drives this urban crime thriller that subverts genre cliches with a character-driven approach.

| Jun 12, 2021

It's a powerful theme, even if director Charles Officer sometimes loses its thread. Still, credit Officer for bringing a sense of tragic realism

| Jun 11, 2021

Intertwine. That's what stories do. Take pieces of the world and the self and twist them into one. The new digest on interpersonal war, starring do-o-o-pe lyrical artist Saul Williams, "Akilla's Escape" is a strong act of intertwining.

| Original Score: 2.75/5 | Jun 11, 2021

This indie crime-noir achieves an unexpected level of affective empathy.

| Original Score: 7/10 | Jun 11, 2021

The deft balance between past and present insurers both Akilla and Sheppard are worth investing in just as much as what it means to escape this life

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jun 11, 2021

Superfly is back in the form of Saul Williams' Akilla Brown.

| Original Score: B+ | Jun 11, 2021

Akilla's Escape crafts a riveting, hypnotic neo-noir requiem for those trapped in vicious cycles

| Original Score: 8.5/10 | Jun 11, 2021

Akilla's Escape is undone by its own lack of faith in the viewer, opting to explicitly tell rather than rely on its fine actors to show us who their characters are.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Jun 11, 2021

[C]o-writer/director Charles Officer's film is less about the plot and more about its protagonist...

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jun 11, 2021

Akilla's Escape recasts the monolithic narrative of gang involvement as one that rejects a trope of Black peril in order to tell a multi-dimensional story of resilience...

| Jun 11, 2021

Although the constant shifts between contemporary Toronto and '90s New York can at times cause confusion, the film remains firmly rooted in Williams' quietly powerful, laser-focused performance.

| Jun 10, 2021