Inspector Ike

Graham Mason's 2020 American film is a comedy in imitation of seventies television detectives. The understudy in an experimental theatre company kills the lead actor and finds himself opposite Ike, said to be New York's greatest detective. The film shows the killer at the start. The tension comes not from who did it but from when the detective will work it out; the narrative uses that pattern deliberately and makes comedy of the delays. The budget is very low and this is not hidden; the sets are plain, the cast small and the locations real apartments. Ikechukwu Ufomadu leads and keeps his register entirely serious, which is where the humour comes from. Who it's for: those who like dry humour and low-budget American independent comedy. Who it's not for: viewers expecting a real detective story; the film mocks the genre throughout.