Movies Reviews

Pariah – Movie Review

By Ron Wilkinson Jan 3, 2012, 14:29 GMT

A Brooklyn teenager juggles conflicting identities and risks friendship, heartbreak, and family in a desperate search for sexual expression. ...more

Excellent performances by an emerging crew of actors and filmmakers tell a priceless story that has to struggle to entertain.

Dee Rees coming-of-age drama has an identity issue. Some may consider it a black story and others may consider it a lesbian story. Writer/Director Rees worked with the actors she knew and that was a good idea because the actors in this film are very good. So she cannot be blamed if the white audience thinks this is a great catalyst for dialogue but wonders what is different about the black context.

Perhaps the point is that there is nothing different about the black context. This is a film about a family of two teenagers and two parents approaching middle age. Crises abound. What else is new? Mom is nearing the end of her fertility and policeman dad is playing around, in the usual vain, male attempt to preserve his manliness.

The younger daughter Sharonda (Sahra Mellesse) is sexually straight. Lead character older sister Alike (a-lee’kay or Lee, played by Adepero Oduye) is exhibiting a thermonuclear transformation into a lesbian woman. Everybody in the neighborhood knows, except her parents.

Of course, her parents know, too, and their fear of the truth traps them in a world of make-believe that is in stark contrast to the fearless reality of the world of their daughters. This film is such a valuable lesson in the art and necessity of intra-family communications that it should be made in both white and black versions.

That way, white families could watch and learn from it and have no possible cultural escape hatch, imagining that this happens only in black families.

The down side of the film is that the parents are, in the final analysis, too normal. There is little there that most of us have not seen before. The story is as ethically truthful as it is cinematically boring. Kim Wayans tries to make a difference as Lee’s mom Audrey Freeman, with some success.

Mom Wayans shares the heavy lifting with daughter Adepero Oduye. The men in the film, Lee’s philandering father and the local storefront crew, are clueless. Charles Parnell’s performance of Arthur, Alike’s cop father, is true to form; Arthur the macho-man has little to say.

His character lays on the screen like a dead fish, ready for fileting (at least until the very end). Audrey knows the score and she does not like it. The more she refuses to believe, the more embarrassed and hurt we are for her. Hers is the best performance in the film.

As good as Wayans’ part is, if this film is compared to last year’s “Precious” and she comes up against Mo’Nique, there is no comparison. Wayans does not have the acting chops to compete, yet, and this screenplay does not allow her to use black rage to emphasize the depth of her feelings.

Perhaps Dee Rees wanted a universal, colorblind message. If so, she has achieved that. However, she has cut the legs out from under any black emotion in this film.

Good supporting performances from Pernell Walker and Aasha Davis as Lee’s friends who are also defining themselves sexually. Sahra Mellesse has limited screen time as Lee’s younger, straight, sister, but she is hilarious in the scene with the strap-on.

Yes, there is a strap-on and it is shown in the most glaringly ludicrous and male-castrating sequence of the entire film. In any event, Sahra comes through with flying colors as the straight younger sister who is remarkably comfortable with her older sister’s fumbling sexual experimentation. She is the sibling of our dreams.

Filmed in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, this film will be a darling of New Yorkers. Potential ticket buyers from the rest of the world may make the mistake of writing it off as a gay film. This is too bad because the film has more to offer as a multi-level exploration of teenage/parent communications.

The community is vitally important in supporting those communications, as reflected in mom Audrey’s relationships with her co-workers, all of whom seem completely familiar with her daughter’s sexual orientation.

Lee’s high school poetry teacher is instrumental in getting Lee a spot at a top college. This is a happy ending, almost too happy, even though the parents are left in a state of semi-trauma. We come to understand that the outcome of Lee’s butch friend Laura’s coming out was not as positive. She can never go back to her parents.

Thankfully, that is the worst tragedy of this film; it could have been much worse. If you find yourself in this position parents, tread lightly. It could go much worse for you.

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Directed and Written by: Dee Rees
Starring: Adepero Oduye, Kim Wayans and Aasha Davis
Release Date: December 28, 2011
MPAA: Rated R for sexual content and language
Running Time: 86 Minutes
Country: USA
Language: English
Color: Color