“Luce is one of our best.”
Luce is a complicated drama that does its best to delve into the minds of its characters, especially teacher Harriet Wilson (Octavia Spencer) and Luce Edgar (Kelvin Harrison, Jr.). Taking place in Arlington, Virginia, it tackles such topics as adoption, social injustice, and mental illness.
Luce really is an exploration of these themes, providing no easy answers. In the Q&A, Julius Onah references the multitudes of identity and talked about the “full spectrum of…
Frustrating, not because it's bad (quite the opposite, actually), but due to the fact that it seems to be building toward something BIGGER for 2/3rds, only to peeter out into purposeful ambiguity, when perhaps something a little more melodramatic (or terrifying) is called for. Kept thinking about Brady Corbet's CHILDHOOD OF A LEADER, and how that was a proposed trilogy, following a monster who'd eventually rise to despotic power throughout different stages of his adolescence. There's the same fascination with…
“I read the communist manifesto once in college and called everyone comrade for a month” -Amy, describing how my career started.
- 2019 Ranked: boxd.it/2lsbC
This movie is a Rorschach test for each audience member's concepts of justice and I have been declared legally insane.
Luce was adopted from Eritrea by a white family (Tim Roth and Naomi Watts). He was being raised as a child soldier when brought to the United States at 7 and went through years of…
Credit where it's due, Luce does a fairly excellent job portraying the internal conflict (borderline existential dread) a parent must feel when their trust in their child is suddenly, decisively challenged—almost makes me yearn for a remake of The Good Son, though We Need to Talk About Kevin and Joshua basically serve that purpose. These effective moments are fleeting, though, as Luce tries to pack in a litany of narrative threads, different characters, and weighty thematic content. Nothing inherently wrong…
What a simultaneously transfixing and irritating experience this movie is. So many buttons being pushed here on race and parenthood and the particular challenges facing resettled survivors of global trauma in the United States. But to what end? I watched the whole thing and I'm still not certain. The only thing I am certain about is Kelvin Harrison Jr. being a huge star some day. It's bad luck that neither this nor Waves were quite strong enough to make 2019 a breakthrough year for him.
The craziest element of the film is how quickly a high school boy texted his mom back
“it’s not that simple” -Harriet,
“nothing ever is” - Luce,
If a teacher gives out an open ended question, she must prepare for any answer from the student.
Been rewatching films that I enjoyed or found interesting in 2019 with my mind on the Oscars. This is my favorite film of 2019 that got no formal recognition of any sort. Luce is an experiment in moral ambiguity with characters that all tow the line between right and wrong, making it…
Naomi Watts watches her son have sex with a girl while making prolonged eye contact with the girl and it's not one of the 10 worst things about this movie. Creates all of its tension from forcing the audience to be constantly guessing about the intentions of an African refugee, leaving his guilts unambiguous and his innocence up to interpretation. Without that it's still horribly written and acted (Tim Roth's accent sounds like the result of a stroke), but they…
Based on a J.C. Lee play that opened at the Lincoln Center’s Claire Tow Theater in 2013, Luce is a movie which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival at the beginning of the year confronting notions concerning political respectability, as well as the adversities challenging immigrants to behave as an impeachable individual of their specific ethnic group.
Directed by Julius Onah, from a screenplay by Onah and Lee, it inevitably has a somewhat stagey characteristic, but the movie’s quality reflects…
Third time seeing LUCE & it’s still the best piece of American cinema I have seen so far this year. Highly suspenseful, deeply uncomfortable & truly thought provoking with a phenomenal cast of actors, some of whom are giving career best work. Be sure to see it.
This is the First Reformed of Sundance. Hands down the most provocative film of the fest. An intelligent, clever, thought-provoking drama that challenges us to rethink what we think we know. Damn this shook me up good. One of the best films of Sundance 2019. Must see.
There's so many crazy, frustrating, annoying things going on with the characters in this film but as I'm watching it I'm realizing - holy shit that's what makes this so good. You bring…
Kelvin Harrison Jr. is a STAR