Review: They Cloned Tyrone has a great cast and killer dialogue

The title is a nod to Erykah Badu's 1997 song Tyrone, a rewritten version of which is featured in the closing credits.

It provides a spoiler but there's more to the film than that, including a highly provocative revelation in the latter part of the film.

They Cloned Tyrone takes place in an underprivileged African-American urban neighbourhood known as The Glen. As director and co-writer Juel Taylor has confirmed, it is intentionally not very clear when the action takes place. Some of the clothes scream 1970s, for example, but there are flip phones and references to Barack Obama and cryptocurrency and other elements that add to the feeling of dislocation - and, perhaps, to make us wonder how long the events that come to light have been happening.

Fontaine (played by John Boyega) is a drug dealer who lives with his mother, though she stays in her room and hardly talks to him. He's still affected by the death of his brother who was killed by the police years ago, and largely sticks to a daily routine - including the always futile purchase of a scratch lottery ticket - perhaps as a way to keep himself together.

After a visit to one of his debtors, pimp Slick Charles (Jamie Foxx, a sight to behold in pimp regalia), Fontaine is shot and, apparently, killed by a rival dealer.

But the next day, he reappears, with no memory of what happened, to the surprise of Charles and one of his prostitutes, Yo-Yo (Teyonah Parris), who was there the previous day.

Surprised by their reaction, Fontaine has a fuzzy recollection of something strange having happened, and the three of them team up to try to find out what's going on in their neighbourhood.

They start noticing some strange goings-on, everywhere from a fried chicken restaurant to a hairdresser and even a church.

It fuels their determination to get the bottom of things.

Those with easily bruised ears be warned - there's a lot of potentially offensive language here, with liberal use made of certain words beginning with "f" and "n", among others. If you can cope with that, the dialogue is frequently inventive and funny.

There are pop culture references galore, from Nancy Drew to Kevin Bacon (a pointed allusion for those who recall Bacon in another sci-fi movie, Hollow Man).

The interactions among these and other characters is one of the film's great strengths, given the quality of the cast and the rapid-fire dialogue.

When Kiefer Sutherland turns up, you just know it's not going to be good. Sutherland has played his share of bad guys and adds another to the list.

The exact nature of his role and what the central trio discover in their course of their investigations I'll leave you to discover.

This is worth a look and provides some food for thought.