Director: RaMell Ross

Stars: Ethan Herisse, Brandon Wilson, Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor

Based on the novel by Colson Whitehead, RaMell Ross's supremely tactile and lyrical picture feels worlds removed from the usual mannered and lifeless book adaptations. Elwood Curtis (Herisse) is an African American teen living in the Jim Crow South 60s. Raised in Tallahassee by his loving grandmother (the excellent Ellis-Taylor), Elwood is encouraged by a supportive teacher to go to the progressive Melvin Griggs College. En route he is offered a lift by a sharply dressed musician whose showy emerald green Impala car quickly draws the attention of the racist police. Elwood is arrested and, even though he was just the passenger, is sent to the brutal Nickel Reform School which practices harsh segregation between blacks and whites enforced by harsh beatings. Here Edwin meets Turner (Wilson), a sympathetic soul who becomes his friend and confidante. Cinematographer-turned-director, Ross, in his fiction feature debut, boldly shoots most of the film from Elwood’s point of view, although we occasionally catch a reflected glimpse of him in mirrors and shop windows. The approach works well in a film about being observed and judged but is initially disorienting and demands close attention from the viewer. At times, Nicholas Monsour’s rhythmically edited weave of images, taking in the quotidian as well as historical events such as the NASA moon landing, almost borders on abstract, but Ross draws it all together beautifully at the conclusion, and Wilson and Ellis-Taylor deliver heart-rending soulful performances.

David Willoughby

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