Tag: Tessa Thompson


Passing

November 22nd, 2021 — 10:09pm

Passing – nf
****

This is a complicated subtle film which deals with a very sensitive subject.

We meet two women who are apparently old friends but have not seen each other in a long time and come upon each other in a chance meeting. They are both light-skinned black women who have gone on different paths since they were friends in the past. Irene (Tessa Thompson) identifies as being black and is married to a black physician(Andre Holland). They have two sons and live in an upper-class lifestyle in Harlem in Manhattan. Clare (Ruth Negga) on the other hand, while similarly light skinned has identified as white and is married to a white man (John Skarsgard) who not only does not know about her true black identity but is openly bigoted against anyone black. By the appearance of the cars shown, the time period is the 1930s.

Unbeknownst to her husband, Clare attends some social gatherings with Irene and her husband, where she can identify as being black. There is a suggestion of an attraction or perhaps an affair between Clare and Irene’s husband as well as a hint of a sexual attraction between the two women. Things culminate where both couples attend another social gathering and things come to a fatal ending.

The film, based on a novel of the same name operates on multiple levels of the theme of “passing”. The main depiction is shown in the term used for a black person who is “passing” as a white one. It is also noted in the possibility of a gay man “passing” as straight. We see, also, a fraught relationship “passing” as a strong one. As one of the characters, thoughtfully states, “things are not always what they seem.”

It is interesting that Director Rebecca Hall is a white woman with a Black Grandfather who passed as white or Native American and this may have been part of her motivation to deal with this sensitive, contemporary and important subject.

The film is well worth seeing.

Comment » | 4 Stars, Drama

Sorry To Bother You

December 18th, 2018 — 8:27pm

***

Sorry to Bother You – nf

It is very difficult to describe or categorize this movie. Certainly, it was not a comedy although somewhere it was advertised as such. We suppose it was a satire. It also was science fiction of sorts but more likely of the horror genre. The movie certainly was taking on racial issues as well as worker exploitation and it also has elements of a love story. In the end it was a serious movie trying to make a statement.

The setting is Oakland, California. Cassius Green is a black, newly hired telemarketer who gets advice that he could be successful in this type of work if he uses a “white voice.” He quickly moves to the next level in his work where he has to deal with a future world of a trending corporation which has a labor policy which offers extra benefits to workers while secretly enslaving them. This is not exactly a typical plot especially when Mr. Green is introduced to a cocaine-like substance which when snorting it can turn you into a half horse, half human creature, but “only for five years” or so our character was told.

This is an unusual story and a weird film that might catch your attention. The director is Boots Riley. The producers include Forest Whitaker. A few of the featured casts are Lakeith Stanfield (as Mr. Green), Tessa Thompson, Jermaine Fowler, Omari Hardwick, Terry Crews, Michael X. Sommers and Danny Glover.

Be prepared for an offbeat different type of a film which will be thought-provoking. (2018)

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Comment » | 3 Stars, Drama

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