Day 2: Summer Of Soul (...Or, When The Revolution Could Not Be Televised), CODA, Passing, R#J

Jan. 30, 2021

Summer Of Soul (...Or, When The Revolution Could Not Be Televised), dir. Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson

CODA, dir. Siân Heder

Summer of Soul (...Or, When The Revolution Could Not Be Televised)

NR | 117 minutes

Wow, wow, wow. Questlove has wonderfully captured the legacy of this unjustly forgotten moment in time. The Harlem Cultural Festival of 1969 was a music festival that occurred at the same time as Woodstock, 100 miles away. It lasted all summer and had audiences of up to 50,000 people every weekend... and yet, it has seemingly been erased. But now, the filmmakers, using the footage taken of the festival when it happened, present this microcosm of black history and music history so beautifully. It’s about how music is important to the culture... How music is representative of the times and how it can create every emotion. Its also about how, often times, as is said in the film, black history is erased. I see this film as a way to take it back and own it again. It’s so good. Even though it’s set against the backdrop of a very trying time for the Harlem neighborhood, the film has a jubilant and lively energy that fills anyone who watches it with glee and the spirit. To see Stevie Wonder, Gladys Knight and the Pips, Nina Simone, Mahalia Jackson, Mavis Staples, the Edwin Hawkins Singers, and so many more all perform together in this moment of time is truly something to behold.

Final Thought: Summer of Soul (...Or, When The Revolution Could Not Be Televised) is a stunning capture of a forgotten microcosm of black history and music history.

Rating: 5 out of 5

CODA

NR | 111 minutes

I really enjoyed this film. It’s a family drama that is fairly commonplace, but what makes it unique is that it focuses on a CODA, or Child of Deaf Adults, who is the only hearing member of her family. In a star-making turn, Emilia Jones plays Ruby so beautifully, with her having to navigate between two different worlds AND her being her family’s ONLY bridge to that other world. She has a beautiful voice, by the way. It was so insightful but at the same time, it didn’t feel preachy. It didn’t feel like the filmmakers were trying to teach the audience about deafness, but rather presenting it in a way to sort of normalize it. By telling this story, it allows deafness and being hard-of-hearing to become less foreign or unfathomable. It is predictable, but that’s not a problem. The climactic scene at the end of the film is so beautifully done, you’ll forget you knew where it was going in the first place. The film is also pretty funny, too. That was unexpected but very much appreciated. The soundtrack, also, is great. It’s certainly an interesting choice to frame this film primarily with Motown and black music from the 60s and 70s, but what are you gonna do? It’s good music.

Final Thought: CODA is a beautiful and heartwarming film that showcases the struggles of a community too seldom forgotten and mocked in society.

Rating: 5 out of 5

Passing, dir. Rebecca Hall

R#J, dir. Carey Williams

Passing

NR | 95 minutes

I’ve never read the source material, but now I’m very interested. This story is based on a 1927 novella by Nella Larssen by the same name. I’d never even heard of the move before knowing about this film, which is interesting because I’d think that it would be very popular considering how advanced it seemed for its time. This film deals with a lot of topics. From just off the top of my head, there’s race, colorism, gender, sexuality, and more. To think that there was frank discussion about these topics let alone a novel written in the 1920s is amazing to me. The film features two amazing performances from two, I feel, very underappreciated actresses, Tessa Thompson and Ruth Negga. Ruth Negga’s Claire is sort of a mystery to the audience and I loved that about her character. She’s quiet and confident but she also carries the weight of knowing what lies ahead for her if her secret gets out. She was puttin’ that Oscar nomination to work! Tessa Thompson was great in this role. I think the best part was finally being able to see her be able to sink her teeth into a dramatic lead role. The film is beautiful, too. The cinematography had this very silky and, I believe as is described in the synopsis, creamy texture. It’s quite stunning. I was taken aback by how well it was shot.

Final Thought: Passing is a thoughtful, haunting film about a multitude of topics, the most prevalent being race and gender, complete with two fantastic lead performances from Tessa Thompson and Ruth Negga.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5

R#J

NR | 91 minutes

I loved the idea behind this film. It premiered in my favorite category, the NEXT category, at the festival, which is described as "pure, bold works distinguished by an innovative, forward-thinking approach to storytelling," and the concept was intriguing: a modern telling of “Romeo and Juliet” told through social media and cell phone screens. One of my favorite films of the last three years is a film called Searching about a father searching for his missing daughter that is told completely through technology screens. So I was interested in this film. For the most part, I would say that I enjoyed this film. The craft behind it is fantastic. It is beautifully shot and I love the way that it looked with the phone screens and everything. It was actually told mostly through Instagram which I thought was an interesting choice. It honestly looks like a music video but not in a bad way. Like, it looks like a really good music video. I loved that there was a diverse cast. I think it was mostly people of color in all the principal roles, which is something that I appreciated. And I like the story. It is a classic, so… My issue, and it’s a pretty big one, with the film comes with the script. Though it is a modern retelling of "Romeo and Juliet," what is not modernized and updated is the dialogue. All of the spoken dialogue is still in its original Shakespearean form. I take issue with this because one, it creates an inconsistency with pretty much every other aspect of the film, and two, it doesn’t match with any other words that are part of the story. All of the text messages that are sent between people are in modern English with current slang. And even peppered throughout the spoken dialogue are modern colloquialisms, and vernacular - curse words specifically. The curse words were the most ill-fitting. Also, the story is severely edited. Romeo and Juliet is a full-length play but the movie is a 90-minute version of that. So, it cuts out a lot of the minutiae of the story. This almost took me out of the film completely. If not for this choice to leave the dialogue as it is, I think I would have really loved this film.

Final Thought: R#J is beautifully shot and a creative take on a well-known tale, but its decision to modernize everything but the spoken dialogue creates a jarring and somewhat jilted viewing experience that makes the film unpalatable at times.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5

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