Passing

to the Academy: Where’s Ruth Negga’s Oscars?

A beautifully done adaptation of an American classic. It captured the tense, psychologically complex feel of the novella in a stunningly acted, stunningly shot film. (bonus: faithful to the source content!)

Tessa Thompson and Ruth Negga shine in a film that masterfully illustrates the allure, the burden, and the damage to all of passing. Passing is in the end in the eye of the beholder, what the white eye needs to tell itself to soothe its feelings or desires, and yet we still tear ourselves and each other apart trying to achieve or be in proximity to it.

[Netflix] From Eduard Grau's cinematography that uses grayscale to create an almost unreal atmosphere, the film deals with ambiguity, contrasting personalities, and the gradation of black skin (from Clare's "clarity" even the darker tone of Irene's maids) that nuances the social strata. The distortion of segregation that the stairs represent is just one of the elegant and brilliant ideas of a movie rich in meaning.

A great film, but that ending made me feel like the writer didn’t really know how to end the story.

Director Rebecca Hall has an amazing feel for composition, angles and lenses.

I'm looking forward to her next movie!

for being a directorial debut (on the part of an incredibly talented woman to be fair) this was really solid. i think a lot of people might be unhappy with the unanswered aspects of it, or the lack of clarity or even the decision to film it in black and white and its aspect ratio. however, all of these work together to emphasize the nebulous gray area that being white-passing puts you in. it makes sense given hall's own experiences with racial identity.

(if you're like me and didn't know much about her beyond being a great but very british actor: her mother is originally from michigan and her grandfather was a man of color passing as white during his own time, presumed to be african-american and of native american descent.)

i think this was written well, directed well, and acted well. the source material is also worth a read. however, i'm white-passing myself (south asian, not bipoc) and i do think that my own experiences are part of why i found the lack of clarity and how much of this movie is open to interpretation to be part of what worked for it.

I enjoyed this a lot, but it felt like a missed opportunity, about 80% is perfection, but left me a bit lost and lacking something in the end. Tessa and Ruth are exceptional.

A restrained, slow burning film with a devastating finish. Remarkable directorial debut for Hall.

The first half of the film drags a bit but that last hour is truly magnetic. A massively interesting topic explored with incredible subtlety, nuance and all the complexity it warrants. Fantastic performances and sublime directing. The black and white and the format work wonderfully. 

I don’t know what to think about the ending just yet, though. I don’t appreciate the woman-on-woman violence, and feel it is the easy way out to wrap up the story. However, I could be missing the bigger picture and it is for sure a powerful finish.