Movie Review - The Birth of a Nation

The Birth of a Nation (2016)

Starring Nate Parker, Armie Hammer, Penelope Ann Miller, Jackie Earle Haley, Mark Boone, Jr., Colman Domingo, Aunjanue Ellis, and Aja Naomi King

Directed by Nate Parker

***This film is currently streaming via HBO Now/Go***

The Birth of a Nation brought with it much controversy prior to its wide release last fall.  Overwhelmingly praised upon its debut at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2016 in part because of the horribly misguided #OscarsSoWhite debate of that year (and receiving the biggest monetary acquisition of any film ever at Sundance), director-writer-producer-star Nate Parker's film found itself under attack upon its wide release thanks to a news story about some possible criminal activities in Parker's past.  Putting all that outside noise aside, The Birth of a Nation certainly places the African American experience at the forefront.  Unfortunately, the movie simply isn't very good.  Shoddily and laughably directed at times, poorly acted in moments, and heavy-handed in its symbolism, The Birth of a Nation's initial praise is an example of a politically-minded provocative film being in the right place at the right time rather than actually being any good.

Based (apparently somewhat loosely) on the real life of slave Nat Turner (played by Parker), The Birth of a Nation takes place in the early 1800s in Southampton County, VA.  Able to read, Turner becomes a slave preacher who is taken from plantation to plantation by his owner Samuel Turner (Armie Hammer) to espouse religion to slaves.  Samuel is financially unstable and Nat's proselytizing is raking in the dough.  Nat, however, finds himself verbally contradicting his inner emotions as he's forced to preach to slaves obedience to their masters.  Although the relationship between Nat and Samuel has been a good one for decades - they played together as kids as a laughable prologue shows us - things take a turn for the worst following a party held at the Turner plantation which causes Nat to plan an uprising against his oppressors in the county.

The Birth of a Nation is difficult to watch in two ways.  Firstly, the film takes a violent turn in its final act and many will not be able to deal with the decapitations and various other horrific deaths depicted onscreen.  Secondly, Parker simply isn't a great director yet.  That aforementioned violent finale proves to be laughable sometimes in the way Parker films his violence.  Rather than be affecting, I found myself uncomfortably chuckling at times because of the way he depicts the horrific event.  (He need look no further than Quentin Tarantino to find a balance in how to showcase violence in uncomfortable situations.)  Unfortunately, this final act isn't the only time Parker's inexperience as a first-time writer and director behind the camera rears its ugly head.  Dream sequences featuring ethereal angels, a few awkward burgeoning romantic scenes with Nat and his soon-to-be-wife (Aja Naomi King), and some weirdly unnecessary location shots are just a few of the directorial and authorial choices that hurt the film rather than help it.  Additionally, Parker just doesn't get good performances from about half of his cast.  While Parker himself is adequate as the main protagonist (although I do wonder if the film would've been more affecting with a stronger actor as the lead), Armie Hammer and Penelope Ann Miller prove to be disappointingly awful at moments which is in part due to their performances, but also due to some of the poor dialog they're forced to spout at various times throughout the film.

Admittedly, the film got better as it progressed (only to regress again when it hits its final violent act).  I was initially prepared to lambast the film, but Parker does kick things slightly into gear in its middle act as the adult Nat is forced to preach in the midst of the painful reality of everyday life for those who are slaves.  Unfortunately, it's not enough to make The Birth of a Nation even remotely close to recommendable.

The RyMickey Rating: D+

Movie Review - Every Secret Thing

Every Secret Thing (2015)

Starring Diane Lane, Elizabeth Banks, Dakota Fanning, Danielle Macdonald, Nate Parker, and Common

Directed by Amy Berg

As soon as the opening credits began to roll for Every Secret Thing and the screenwriter popped up as Nicole Holofcener, I found myself getting excited.  Holofcener wrote and directed the fantastic Enough Said, and while Every Secret Thing was certainly a dramatic shift away from that romantic comedy, I still held out hope that I was in for something worthwhile.  Unfortunately, that wasn't the case.

As young girls, Alice Manning and Ronnie Fuller were convicted of stealing and killing a baby and sent to a juvenile detention center for seven years.  Now eighteen and released, another toddler has gone missing and Alice and Ronnie (Danielle Macdonald and Dakota Fanning) are suspected of the crime being investigated by Detective Nancy Porter (Elizabeth Banks).  With Alice claiming that she was innocent of the first crime, she and her mother Helen (Diane Lane) try to cooperate with the police, but feel that they're being targeted simply because of Alice's past.  However, Ronnie claims Alice manipulated her seven years ago and was the true mastermind behind the earlier kidnapping and murder.  Is either girl responsible for the newest crime, are they both playing one another, or are they in cahoots again?

Every Secret Thing takes us back and forth in time, revealing little bits of the story not in a way that is inherently integral to the story, but in a way to manipulate the viewer which proves to be enervating rather than enlightening.  With stilted dialog and blatant direction of actors that makes their "secrets" seem obvious from the film's outset, first-time director Amy Berg and screenwriter Holofcener don't succeed at creating a story that feels anything other than contrived.  Elizabeth Banks is solid as the detective desperate to find the missing child, but Diane Lane and relative newcomer Daniele Macdonald inhabit characters so poorly designed that it probably wouldn't have been possible to come out of this looking good.

The RyMickey Rating: D+

Movie Review - Beyond the Lights

Beyond the Lights (2014)

Starring Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Nate Parker, Minnie Driver, and Danny Glover

Directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood

From a young age, Noni always had some strong vocal chops and her mother Macy Jean (Minnie Driver) took full advantage of trying to exploit them at local talent shows around London.  As time passed, that exploitation found itself being amplified many times over and twentysomething Noni (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) finds herself on the cusp of superstardom after having been featured in the successful songs of a famous rapper.  After winning a Billboard Music Award for her collaboration, Noni finds herself devastated as opposed to happy as her industry is simply pushing her sex appeal rather than her talent.  Saddened, Noni attempts to commit suicide by jumping off her hotel balcony, stopped only by the valiant efforts of a young cop named Kaz (Nate Parker).  Regular guy Kaz reminds Noni that she's worth more than the music industry is making her out to be and, much to her mother's chagrin, Noni begins to question her calling in life.

Beyond the Lights certainly has something to say about the music industry's incessant push to sexually exploit its female stars and director-screenwriter Gina Prince-Bythewood places this misogynistic tendency front and center in the film's less successful first half.  While I certainly understand the importance of setting up Noni's sexualization, these attacks of the industry as a whole seem too obvious and sometimes over-the-top.  As the film progresses, though, and Noni begins to question the true price of fame on her psyche, Beyond the Lights blossoms into something with much more depth than we're used to seeing.

At the center of the film is a nice performance from Gugu Mbatha-Raw who shows us a complicated woman in Noni.  The allure of fame, the need to please her mother, the vulnerability she feels when she discovers she may want something different for herself -- all mix together to create a complex creation that really comes alive in the film's second half.

Similarly, Mbatha-Raw's performance is matched by Minnie Driver whose role as Macy Jean could've simply been that of a typical stage mom, but instead is a smart woman whose drive for herself and her daughter was never meant to be destructive, but may well just be that.  While Macy Jean may see Noni falling apart at the seams, she pushes these issues away in order to travel on the road to success.  Macy knows that her daughter's got a set of pipes, but she also knows that the only way to stardom is through the lens of the male gaze coupled with female objectification.

Beyond the Lights is much more successful in its second half as Noni comes to grips with leaving behind her fame, disappointing her mother, and falling in love with a man who has drastically changed her outlook on life.  It's in this part of the film that I feel Prince-Bythewood gives us a taste of something we don't often see in films, abandoning some of the stereotypical tropes of the first half and allowing us to glimpse the slow unveiling of Noni's true self beyond the lights of fame.

The RyMickey Rating:  B