'Rustin' Review: An Awful Film With A Tremendous Lead Performance

It's hard to find words about Rustin , director George C. Wolfe's historical drama about gay civil rights activist Bayard Rustin. This is a terrible, disjointed, and unpleasant film in almost every way except one: Colman Domingo's committed, energetic, and thoroughly engrossing performance along with the film's plot elevates it to a "more or less watchable" level.

Not since the late Max von Sydow 's Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close has there been such a disparity between the quality of a film and the outstanding performances within it. In fact, Rustin has a lot in common with the 2011 Oscar-nominated 9/11 film, from its overtly cheesy tone to its star-studded cast and its attempt to evoke sympathy through its use of recognizable American iconography. Both productions also fall into a category often referred to as "Oscar bait," that type of mid-budget Hollywood drama that exists largely to win end-of-year awards that can provide a boost. Rustin ). incident). , some additional Netflix subscriptions).

But “Very Hard” is at least well done. Wolfe's film doesn't even have much to offer. Rustin cracks at every turn, having a stunning dramatic structure and a failure to comprehend the enormity of the event on which it is built: the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. He tried to play a familiar biographical melody, but every note was out of tune.

What is Rustin talking about?

At the time, the March on Washington was the largest single-city demonstration in American history, with nearly 300,000 people participating. You know this event, even if you think you don't: Martin Luther King Jr. It is here. delivered his famous "I Have a Dream" sermon at the foot of the Lincoln Memorial. The speech is remembered as a seminal moment in the struggle for black civil rights, but Bayard is not often thought of as the architect of the event, let alone as someone who shared the interests and doubts of being an important figure in the movement.

Rustin attempts to correct this historical status quo by tracing the dynamics of Bayard's relationship with King (played by Aml Ameen) and various other activists in the years and months leading up to the protests. Written by Julian Brees and Dustin Lance Black and produced by Higher Ground Barack and Michelle Obama, the film highlights a series of events often hidden in the classroom and public consciousness, from Bayard's personal relationships to his professional rivals such as NAACP leader Roy. Wilkins (Chris Rock) and politician Adam Clayton Powell Jr. (Jeffrey Wright), who painted a target on his back for various reasons, including his sexuality and political outspokenness.

It is positive that Rustin will likely bring these facts to light, thereby shining a light on an often overlooked area of ​​black queer history. However this can be easily achieved by sharing a link to Bayard's Wikipedia page. That the film couldn't have done more is truly tragic, considering the strong material and talented cast.

Unfortunately, the same could be said of Wolfe's previous work, the star-studded Ma Rainey's Black Bottom , which also featured an underexposed black queer icon: blues singer Ma Rainey (Viola Davis). Together, Ma Rainey and Rustin demonstrate their inability to capture and reimagine existing historical forces, let alone create new iconography through a cinematic lens.

Rustin's cinema was boring, unkempt, and empty.

"Too much dead air filled Wolfe's stage in Rustin ." The images he creates, with rare exceptions, have little energy. The film's opening montage recreates iconic photos and paintings from the civil rights era, such as Norman Rockwell 's The Trouble We All Live With , which shows 6-year-old Ruby Bridges being escorted by US Marshals to a recently desegregated elementary school, as well as that famous photo . and a video of Elizabeth Eckford being booed when she entered high school as one of the first black students. These plans are embedded in our collective memory, and Wolfe transcribes them with ease.

But some moments there have the same vitality. There is violence in every conversation. The montage seems to last as long as the characters complete their dialogue, leaving little room for emotional impact to emerge. The camera moves significantly only when Domingo appears on screen, on the one hand, presenting him as the driving force of the story itself, but, on the other hand, making it seem as if every frame in which he does not appear is a recording. replay. From time to time the camera zooms in on him, causing bursts of mesmerizing energy that Domingo sends back with his theatrical and physical statements. But even these flourishes quickly fade as the film settles into routine visual and narrative beats.

The fact that some of the group scenes are poorly shot against the wrong backdrop is certainly troubling, but it's less of a death sentence than the film's more pressing dramatic issues. Few characters, with the exception of Bayard, seem to have their own inner worlds or lives and personalities outside of his orbit. Exceptions to this rule are her loyal assistant and occasional lover, Tom (Gus Halper), and the amiable but conflicted married man with whom she begins a secret relationship, Elias Taylor (Johnny Raimi). But since almost every frame outside Bayard's home is made up of dozens of other organizers forming a multinational support coalition, this seems to be a problem. Outside his apartment, where several intimate moments occur, things happen to Rustin simply because they happen in real life. Here they are presented with little sense of cause and effect resulting from the character's decisions.

Take for example when political activist Anna Arnold Hedgeman (CCH Pounder) spoke out against the lack of female speakers at the march, quite late at 106 minutes. His complaint seems to come out of nowhere, as neither Hedgeman's point of view nor the shape of the line's previous formation are ever part of the film's scope. Then, once problems arise, they're resolved quickly, without much on-screen discussion, let alone any revelations about Bayard's background, his training, or the limitations of his perspective.

The film pays little attention to the drama that occurs when hosting a large event with so many chefs in the kitchen. Moreover, when the procession finally arrives, the film reaches a visual and emotional peak that never comes. Rustin is not Selma ; it was actually anti- Selma . Although Ava DuVernay's biopic The King also builds its story around a single event ( the Selma to Montgomery marches ), it reveals its plot and political intrigue through a highly dramatic study of its characters. In Rustin, the March on Washington occurs as an inevitability, creating predetermined, impactless character moments.

In the end, not only is the scope and historical significance of the march completely overlooked (its size and scale are never fully seen, its emotional weight never felt), but so is Bayard's story during this hiatus. His story of balancing political and personal life finds no resolution when Rustin suddenly dies. It was as if he was just a momentary pawn, who wanted to ruin the film. Instead, the narrative structure drags it back under the carpet of history. In this case, it's a good thing that Domingo is as magnetic as he is, because without him, none of the films would stick in your mind.

Colman Domingo presents a show for all ages.

Two interrelated elements prevent Rustin from falling apart: the fact that everything happens as a political procedure, and that every procedure is consolidated in the presence of Domingo. Without the second, the first wouldn't be as interesting.

With a wide, charming smile made of broken teeth (thanks to a police baton), Bayard displays an indomitable spirit and has a tongue sharp enough to split anyone in half with its razor-sharp tip. (When a young man at a party tries to pick a fight with him by calling him “irrelevant,” he defuses the argument by replying, “It's Friday night, I've been called worse.”) Domingo's appeal is doubly scientific. . : folded, to be precise. He eliminated any other Type A personalities in the room or anyone else who might have a conflict with him, while also attracting people who were misled by his specific, uncompromising preaching. He looks like Martin Luther King Jr., but without the glitz and polish, which makes him very interesting to look at.

But what really sets Domingo's performance apart is the way he turns all these superficial quirks into a kind of armor, cracks that are sometimes visible to the camera. As a man in his fifties, Bayard doesn't care much about what others think of him, good or bad; It also infects your personal relationships. But we can also trace from Domingo's facial expressions and even the most cheerful lines, how painful the path he has taken to get to this place without regrets.

When the political forces around him finally close in and use his personal life as a weapon against him, he reaches an emotional cliff that forces him to decide how much he wants to involve others in his relentless pursuit of justice. . It's a complex, dramatic mystery that Domingo solves in heartbreaking fashion, but he's also surrounded by scenes and shots that don't highlight the dilemma. Lighting, pacing, blocking—the tools that could have helped Bayard's journey emerge into real film material that could be felt, not just felt—fell into the background until each scene was a languid, jumbled disaster that leapt from the foreground to the foreground. close-up, no one is interesting except Domingo.

Domingo is so radiant that it's unfair considering how boring everything around him is. His playing seems brighter and more refined in comparison, although it seems a great injustice that no other element of Rustin rises to a level comparable to his. It's an island unto itself, which is ironically sad because Bayard's story is a story about people coming together.

Rustin is streaming on Netflix.

UPDATE: November 16, 2023 11:43 EST. Rustin leaves NewFest; the review was republished for the film's debut on Netflix.

The real Aragorn would have completely changed The Lord of the Rings.