'Luce' turns the story of an ideal student into a provocation on race, privilege and every parent's nightmare. Read Peter Travers' review
In the middle of a summer of dumb fun and comic-book escapism, it’s some kind of miracle to find a film as seriously ambitious, scrappy and suspenseful asA provocation about race, privilege and the expectations that come with both, the movie follows the title character, played by star-in-the-making Kelvin Harrison Jr. He’s an African-American student and academic all-star at the Arlington, Virginia high school he attends.
That’s the movie, and it’s riveting from start to finish. Nigerian-American director Julius Onah, who adapted J.C. Lee’s 2013 Off-Broadway play with the writer himself, knows what it’s like to be boxed into how others see you. His previous film, the 2018 Netflix film, was a big-budget sci-fi clunker. But with his latest, Onah is out to show he can get audiences to challenge the very roots of what they believe.
He does this by putting Luce on a pedestal and then proceeding to rattle the ground underneath it. Suddenly, the public image of this bright young man is being questioned. His teacher and mentor, Harriet Wilson , is feeling shaky in her faith regarding the school’s exemplar. In response to her request to write an essay about a historical figure he admires, Luce chooses the revolutionary African writer Frantz Fanon, who advocated violence to fight colonization.
Wilson turns to Luce’s parents and the result is mutually defensive. The confrontation scene between Spencer and Watts builds to an unbearable tension, heightened by the camera artistry of Larkin Seiple and the jangling score Geoff Barrow and Ben Salisbury.
Through it all, the mysterious, magnificent Harrison holds us in thrall, nailing every nuance — the breakout star ofis even more spectacular here. Luce is buffeted by winds that whip him whenever he refuses to conform to the expectations his family, friends, school, and adopted country set for him. Near the end, the film hints at answers, but hardly a resolution.
Singapore Latest News, Singapore Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Fustany Tried It: The Body Shop's Almond Oil, a Fast Fix for Dry NailsRead this review of The Body Shop Almond Oil for nails and find out what I liked and what I didn't like about it.
Read more »
Nuggets Offseason Review: Favorable Grades For Denver Staying True To Their PathThe Nuggets cut against the grain this summer, banking on keeping their roster mostly intact and bucking the larger NBA trend of increased player movement.
Read more »
Film Review: ‘The Angry Birds Movie 2’“For every minute you remain angry, you give up sixty seconds of peace of mind,” wrote Ralph Waldo Emerson — though he reckoned without the Angry Birds making a virtue of that trade. Pe…
Read more »
Film Review: ‘The Red Sea Diving Resort’“There’s so much to see and do in Arous,” read the brochure for a Sudanese vacation spot where visitors could go scuba diving amid reefs “made famous by Jacques-Yves Cousteau and Hans Hass.” Never …
Read more »
JoJo Siwa D.R.E.A.M Tour Concert Review: Master of the UniverseAt a certain point in the mid-2000s, savvy advertising agencies en masse began targeting an increasingly younger subset of child consumer, driven by the notion that kids’ persistence and nascent desire would sell material goods better than ads targeting parents and their pocketbooks ever could. The advertisers’ coveted tween market—kids aged 8 to 12, generally—was an early stab at influencer virality that preyed on gendered notions of the way girls socialize; in 2007, CBS News interviewed the CEO of a firm called “Girls Intelligence Agency” about how they relied upon very young “secret agents”—scouted to proselytize the latest toys, clothes, and the like—to their friends. “If the alpha girl likes a product,” according to CBS, “she tells two friends, and they tell two friends, and they tell two friends, and it spreads like a virus.” The headline, “Marketing to ‘Tweens’ Going Too Far?” reflected a growing parental distress that bare capitalism was worming its way into their babies’ inchoate brains before they could apply critical analyses to what they were being sold.
Read more »