The ultra-low budget single setting thriller Sway is as rare as finding a diamond in a haystack; a talky, exposition driven story that never wavers, slows, or remains static. As sharp as a sword and entertaining as any popcorn movie with ten times the budget, Sway is a cracking blend of modernist cinematic trickery and stripped down, old school B-movie noir vibes. It knows how to hook the viewer, keep them locked in, and refuses to let them go as the audience keeps guessing what’s going to happen next. Don’t let it’s modest appearance fool you. Sway is as deadly as they come.
James “Sway” Drayton (Congolese-Canadian actor Emmanuel Kabongo) is about to have a really bad day. A community leader and successful businessman who helped clean up his once drug ridden, violent, and impoverished neighbourhood should be celebrating on this day. He’s about to close a major deal. His little brother, Cyril (Tony Ofori), is about to have a light shone on him as a high level NFL prospect. A big press conference is on the horizon. Everything should be coming up Milhouse for Sway. But instead of starting the day on the right foot, he wakes up on the balcony of his penthouse condo, hungover and with no recollection of the night before. There’s a strange woman (Brittany Raymond) in his bed and cocaine all over his opulent looking coffee table. Cy has gone missing and is being hunted down by a bookie (Paul Amos) over a bad bet. The woman from the night before has decided to start blackmailing him. Strange people have shown up outside his family’s house, scaring his wife. His right hand dude, Richie (Lovell Adams-Gray), might be either a screw-up, a snitch, or something even worse. And to top it all off, he’s supposed to be giving an interview to a journalist (Mishael Morgan) who starts asking increasingly loaded questions about Sway’s background.
Over the course of ninety more or less real time minutes, co-directors Zachary Ramelan and Charlie Hamilton (the latter of whom also provides the screenplay) watch their titular character literally sweating out the mounting tensions of the day. Sway ping-pongs back and forth between rooms of the condo, depicting any number of phone calls, one-on-one talks, and the interview most of the action revolves around. If there’s any major budgetary limitation to be glimpsed in Sway (which was shot in about a week on the slimmest of margins), it’s that I would imagine a big time player like this would have a much nicer condo. Beyond that one quibble, Sway is a masterful example of how to convey an intricate story in the most compact of ways.
So much of Sway’s success relies on the ability of Hamilton’s script to explain every situation without showing it in too great of detail, and the ability of the tandem directors to make it visually compelling and keep things moving. The opening sequence of Sway, where the protagonist swoons and drags his way to the door in a haze, sets the visual tone nicely. Cinematographer Chris Morsby’s ingenious work always ensures that the conversations driving the story are never shot from the same angles more times than necessary. Morsby makes sure Hamilton and Ramelan always have something interesting to work with, and Sydney Cowper’s editing reduces drag to almost nothing. Sway opens at almost a ten and stays there thanks to the efforts of everyone behind the camera.
With limited space to work with, the core on-screen talent is wisely limited to the three principal players: Kabongo, Morgan, and Gray, all of whom bring their A-game. Morgan nicely plays the character who’s hiding their true identity and motives well, even including a well played, but subtle performance quirk that offers a cheeky hint. Gray occupies an intriguing middle ground in the role of a person whom no one should fully trust, no matter their ultimate goals. And as for Kabongo (who also serves as a producer), he has to do just as much to sell the material as the script, and the actor is more than up to the challenge. As a powerful man stuck in fight-or-flight mode (often incorrectly choosing the former), Kabongo always makes the viewer question if Sway is a former hood turned straight arrow whose former life is coming back to haunt him or if they’re just such a seasoned criminal that they were smart enough to never shit where they eat. It’s a performance of tremendous energy and emotion.
Sway is a film that knows what it’s working with, but more importantly understands the value of its material. While many of the twists might be taking on a lot of real world baggage by the end, all of it comes together in a compelling, reasoned package. With each progressing swerve and reveal, Sway becomes richer instead of ridiculous or overreaching. It’s the kind of film a lot of people wanting to get into the business of making movies should study. Many people have tried to make movies like Sway with few dollars and lots of ambition, but few nail it as strongly as this. You can tell that the people working on Sway know they’re making something special. That kind of feeling is electric and it shows in the final product.
Sway opens at Cineplex Yonge and Dundas in Toronto and Cineplex Morningside in Scarborough on Friday, February 6, 2026.
