‘Duster’ sequence overview: Rachel Hilson’s sass and Josh Holloway’s laidback attraction rock the retro trip

From the title sequence that includes a miniature automobile race, with the King’s well-known Blue Suede Footwear swinging jauntily from the phone wires, to the music and costumes, J. J. Abrams and LaToya Morgan’s Duster, brings 1972 Phoenix, Arizona to thrilling life.

Nina Hayes (Rachel Hilson), the primary Black feminine FBI agent (supposedly loosely modelled on Sylvia Elizabeth Mathis) proper out of Quantico, asks to be posted to Phoenix. She faces chauvinism with a smile, a pointy wardrobe, and a sharper thoughts. She is decided to deliver down Ezra Saxton (Keith David), a criminal offense boss whose energy and affect are growing by the day.

Nobody at her workplace believes she will be able to do it, as others have tried and failed — with the final agent on the Saxton case dropping his thoughts and getting locked up in an asylum. Nina’s boss, Nathan Abbott (Greg Grunberg), tries to be supportive of her at the same time as he has to reply to his superiors, whereas the opposite male brokers, together with Chad Grant (Dan Tracy), are brazenly hostile.

Solely Awan Bitsui (Asivak Koostachin), a Navajo, who additionally doesn’t get any respect from the opposite brokers, helps Nina. Although not as prepared to color exterior the strains as Nina, Awan is a loyal associate and follows Nina to the top.

Nina feels the one approach to crack the Saxton case open is thru a mole, and she or he identifies Saxton’s getaway driver, Jim (Josh Holloway), for the job. We first meet Jim as he’s driving his pink 1970 Plymouth Duster like a bat out of hell. We study that he has to select up a time-critical bundle. Within the automobile is Luna (Adriana Aluna Martinez), Jim’s ex Izzy’s (Camille Guaty) daughter. 9-year-old Luna likes to trip together with her Uncle Jim, and he obliges her at any time when doable.

We study that Jim goes to take supply of a coronary heart for Saxton’s son, Royce (Benjamin Charles Watson), who has a congenital coronary heart illness. The guts transplant is carried out in Saxton’s mansion, with Jim pumping the guts to get it beating once more. Ezra’s daughter, Genesis (Sydney Elisabeth), is the brains and a greater than succesful inheritor — if not for her gender. In spite of everything, that is the ’70s we’re speaking about. Jim’s household, together with his father Wade (Corbin Bernsen) and brother, Joe, have been working for Saxton.

Joe died on the job, and Nina figures out a approach to flip Jim with some data she has. Charlotte (Gail O’Grady), Wade’s spouse, is just not significantly keen on Jim, and the sensation is mutual. Billy (Evan Jones), Ezra’s muscle man, is unpredictable and suspicious of everybody, together with Jim. Throw in soiled cops, together with a very nasty one, Groomes (Donal Logue), a conspiracy from the very best powers, Elvis Presley’s Blue Suede Footwear, a dialogue on Pitirim Sorokin’s six kinds of mobility, and Howard Hughes, and you’re assured one hell of a trip.

The interval element is beautiful however lived-in, from the music (Jimi Hendrix’s ‘Foxey Woman’, Presley’s ‘Teddy Bear’, Chakachas’ ‘Jungle Fever’, and extra), garments (shorts, scarves, broad collars, and flared trousers), and film references to pleasant blasts from the previous — together with a Rolodex and Agent Bitsui’s Superman pockets. There’s additionally Hughes in all his eccentric glory, insisting the suitcase be dealt with with tissue, his guests wash their fingers 4 occasions, whereas additionally giving Luna a style of the millionaire way of life with the 350 gallons of banana nut ice cream he has stashed and a screening of Bullitt, that final automobile chase film with the king of cool, Steve McQueen, because the eponymous San Francisco cop.

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The appearing is spot on, and it’s troublesome to attract the eyes away from Holloway’s straightforward rider and Hilson’s uncompromising politeness and attraction. Duster, with its muscle automobiles and retro vibes (I nearly anticipated Amitabh Bachchan because the laconic, harmful Vijay to lock the godown door and ask Peter to attempt to take the keys from him), is a blast from the previous in one million scrumptious methods. Can Season 2 come already?

Duster is at present streaming on Jio Hotstar

Printed – July 07, 2025 05:35 pm IST