REVIEW: PASSING

4/5

The Skin I Live In.

99 Mins. Starring: Tessa Thompson & Ruth Negga, André Holland, Bill Camp, Gbenga Akinnagbe , Antoinette Crowe-Legacy & Alexander Skarsgård. Director: Rebecca Hall. 

Under the skin, this movie is 'Passing' as more than just a mesmerizing masterpiece from first-time and already now confirmed behind the camera, definitive director Rebecca Hall (the actor of 'The Town', 'The Prestige' and the haunting report of 'Christine'). One that shot as such, looks the jazz-age part of a 1920's New York in this subtle, cinematic roar that like the artist takes us back, Jack Gatsby. It's also hiding much deeper messages than the one that stares right down at us through the barrel of the lens, boring holes. Just like the straight to screen break of one of our two leads who taking in more than the other, looks right at us. Saying so much more behind the gaze. Making us sit up and take notice of ourselves, our history. Who the lines disregarded. A hidden love like Cate Blanchett's 'Carol' for Rooney Mara, or the 'Disobedience' of Rachel Weisz and McAdams. Like hands held together under the table, but apart. But let's get right back to what we can see. Dreadful. Disgusting. Despicable. Two decades and no change later the great Nat King Cole was made to bleach his skin when performing his movie hit 'Nature Boy' on live TV. All whilst crosses were burning on the front lawn of his new home in an all white neighbourhood. You should hear Stevie Wonder talk about it on a Cole documentary. His words do enough, but you can see in his face how heartbroken he still is by these type of ignorant injustices and intolerable cruelties. And this is a man blind from birth. We aren't even trying to be anything but truthful when we can assure you this was the one and only time he was relieved he couldn't see something. Something so horrible. But oh, how he could feel it. Like everyone with a heart or conscience could. It's too much to see. Even more of a burden to bear in enduring its pain. Why beautiful black skin was made to be ashamed of itself and hide in plain sight from mad men was the biggest crime against humanity. All whilst callous cowards that these days won't even wear a mask to help their fellow man, hid their face under a white hood. Revealing more within what they pass as, this moving and compelling film stirs the souls of those whose open hearts reveal more than what they wear on their sleeves. As this off the cuff, unconventional throwback of a movie shows us just how much hasn't changed in modern times. 

Hidden figures right in front of us, people of color had to do this as a made-up shield in order to avoid persecution and even far, far worse. This is why they had to pass as something else, even though they were still proud of who they were. Who they are. It's just an ignorant and hateful society in an American and world wide reaching world wasn't. It's like what 'Selma', 'If Beale Street Could Talk' and 'Ma Rainey's Black Bottom' star Colman Domingo said only as recently as this Halloween in the 'Candyman' remake, "they love what we make, but they don't love us." It stunned me only this weekend living in Japan and talking to a close friend in Tokyo. Addressing the problem of racism seen here that sees even a basketball superstar like Rui Hachimura putting the sport on the map for this country and vice versa receiving abuse from some people, even in this time of social justice movements like Black Lives Matter and Stop Asian Hate. My friend is no racist and does not subscribe to these ignorant ideals but believes it belongs to the bizarre following of the old American way that this land decides to do, despite all the States of the past put them through. Of course the beautiful country from Japan welcoming peace and compassion is far from a racist nation, but there is a hidden problem. Racism isn't born, its taught. But it's done so with such a clenched iron fist that refuses to give a hand or the turn the academic book page to real, revolutionary black history. Like the fact that you had to see a Hollywood movie featuring Kevin Costner to even realize black women did more than the math that got whitey on the moon. But let's hear it Taraji P. Henson, Octavia Spencer, Janelle Monaé and the real 'Hidden Figures' they portrayed. Going through her family tree, 'Godzilla vs Kong' and 'Iron Man 3' actress Rebecca Hall realized that her maternal grandmother passed as white and now the daughter of opera singer Maria Ewing is using that blockbuster push to forge ahead with passion projects like this that mean so much more than popcorn, or the industry idea of 'two for you, one for me'. The big-three Hollywood megastars of Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson, Ryan Reynolds and Gal Gadot may have made Rawson Marshall Thurber's 'Red Notice' doing 'Squid Game' numbers the most successful opening day Netflix movie release. But this portrait in personal 'Roma' black and white heading for the gold of the Academy like 'The Irishman', 'Marriage Story', or 'The Two Popes' is putting everyone on notice. 

Sweltering in the sun that's having everyone fainting in the Manhattan streets, this reveal is bound to leave everyone in shock and awe as the true side to the story back then would make everyone collapse. Adapted from Nella Larson's groundbreaking 1929 novel of the same name and racial, gender and class divides in the big city of dreams and broken promises the thought of a perfect life made to us. And the partnering headline stars of 'Creed's' Tessa Thompson and Ruth Negga of her Oscar nominated performance (expect another) in 'Loving' (regarding the white man and black woman whose love changed the laws between interracial marriage. And how beautifully poignant that their surname in matrimony was actually, Loving) bring the pain and power of these pages to their stages on screen. Familiar with that Marvel money, Thompson is the Avenger and Thor world Valkyrie, who became the first bisexual hero in the MCU, thanks to her and Taika. Whilst Negga was an 'Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D.' scene stealing regular who made her name as the powerful and complex Raina character. Those eyes that communicate so much stayed with you as they pierce points here. Both actresses of course are more than the mainstream. See Tessa in the right before it's time 'Sorry To Bother You' and Ruth in the cerebral Brad Pitt space drama 'Ad Astra' for even more atmosphere. But it's here were they both give us their best. From Tessa Thompson's character in this fight with all her broken and bruised resolve and the delicately heartbreaking Ruth Negga portrayal that can move you and shock you to your core with just one gesture or look away in shielded tears, trying to pass off like everything is alright. But it's not. And this film gets exactly to the heart of that. And why, and how. Thanks to some stellar support from 'Moonlight's' mesmerizing André Holland, who can front a Netflix movie all on his own (see basketball's 'High Flying Bird' above the rim), A-list character actor Bill Camp (see 'Wildlife', 'Molly's Game' and of course Netflix's 'The Queens Gambit' for even more moves) and Hall's kaiju fighting with an ape co-star Alexander Skarsgård, scarring the screen with his characters cruel racism and bitter indignant, ignorance. With that being said, what an actor and performance. But it's star of HBO's 'The Wire' and 'The Deuce' Gbenga Akinnagbe and Antoinette Crowe-Legacy making her own one that really leave their mark. Passing through themselves, but not hidden in the margins of this story, or "the blank white spaces at the edges of print" Margaret Atwood's 'Handmaid's Tale' taught us about. There is no gaps in this story. So don't make it a passing fancy. Standing out and staying with you, nothing can disguise the calm power of this movie that comes into this fall season like a quiet storm. Burning over the snow below like an atmospheric cigarette over some flapping French windows in the wind that does more than let this cold world in. Don't pass up on a chance to see and learn from how things really were and sadly still are before we change. If you don't, life and its lessons will merely pass you on by. TIM DAVID HARVEY. 

Further Filming: 'Carol', 'Disobedience', 'The Last Black Man In San Francisco'.