Irene Redfield (Tessa Thompson) to Hugh Wentworth (Bill Camp) in Passing
Reviews and Comments by Ken Burke
I invite you to join me on a regular basis to see how my responses to current cinematic offerings compare to the critical establishment, which I’ll refer to as either the CCAL (Collective Critics at Large) when they’re supportive or the OCCU (Often Cranky Critics Universe) when they go negative.
Passing (Rebecca Hall) rated PG-13 99 min.
Opening Chatter (no spoilers): With all due respect (“due,” you will please note, not “required”) to Eternals (Chloé Zhao) and Clifford the Big Red Dog (Walt Becker)—which together raked in about $44 million in domestic (U.S.-Canada) box-office-receipts last weekend (former’s up to $282.4 million worldwide, latter’s just playing in northern North America right now)—I once again found no compelling reason to rush out to a COVID-optional theatrical experience (but did attend a local stage production of The Game’s Afoot or Holmes for the Holidays, a comedy/murder mystery, where audience members had to show a vaccination card and keep their masks on all night)—although I am quite intrigued by Belfast (Kenneth Branagh) but will have to travel a bit to find it—so it was back to streaming once again, arriving at Netflix for one of the year’s best films (I know, there are a lot more to come, but this will surely be on my preliminary list for 2021’s Top 10), Passing, based on a 1929 novel about 2 Black women, childhood friends but long-removed from each other’s lives, who meet again in NYC, both of them light-skinned but one (Irene) living in Harlem with her doctor husband and their 2 children while the other’s (Claire) passing for White, married to a rich, racist businessman, with horrid trouble sure to follow when Claire decides she'll return (as best she clandestinely can) to her roots even as Irene both worries that her friend’s masquerade will be discovered and resents how attracted husband Brian’s becoming to her supposedly-White friend. Tessa Thompson as Irene, Ruth Negga as Claire are both fabulous in their roles as is the beauty of the throwback black & white cinematography. In the Short Takes section I’ll offer suggestions for some choices on the Turner Classic Movies channel (but too much extra text for line-justified-layout like you see here [Related Links stuff at each posting’s end is similarly-ragged], at least to be done by this burned-out-BlogSpot-drone—oh, ye tedious software!) along with my standard dose of industry-related-trivia. Regarding trivia, this posting marks our 500th with unique hits approaching 1.8 million, so thanks again to anyone worldwide who’s ever looked even briefly at our project here!
Here’s the trailer for Passing:
(Use the full screen button in the image’s lower right to enlarge it; activate
that same button or use the “esc” keyboard key to return to normal size.)
If you can abide plot spoilers read on, but this blog’s intended for those who’ve seen the film or want to save some $ (as well as recognizing those readers like me who just aren’t that tech-savvy). To help any of you who want to learn more details yet avoid these all-important plot-reveals I’ll identify any give-away sentences/sentence-clusters with colors plus arrows:
⇒The first and last words will be noted with arrows and red.⇐ OK, now continue on if you prefer.
What Happens: Set in late 1920s NYC, this film’s based on Nella Larson’s 1929 book of the same name where we begin—after purposefully-unfocused shots, muffled dialogue which then resolves into women’s legs walking in a city—with Irene Redfield (Tessa Thompson), a light-skinned Black woman who lives in Harlem with her doctor husband, Brian Redfield (André Holland), and 2 young sons, Junior (Ethan Barrett) and Ted (Justus Davis Graham), finding herself being treated respectfully farther south in Manhattan as she’s likely passing for White in the eyes of the people she interacts with, seeing what they assume to be true based on the contextual-circumstances (why would a Black woman dare to be found in their upper-crust-establishments?). After finishing her shopping (and seeing a man passed out on the sidewalk) she takes a cab to the classy Drayton Hotel, sits in the restaurant, suddenly sees a woman who catches her attention who turns out to be her childhood friend from Chicago, Clare Bellew (Ruth Negga), now with bleached-blonde-hair (as we’ll assume from another sort of context, as this film’s shot in black & white, presented in the old 4x3 ratio of films and TV until the later-20th-century, all to give us a sense of the long-ago-period where this particular story occurs) as she’s married to a rich businessman, John Bellew (Alexander Skarsgård), who’s in the city on a specific project so they’re staying at this hotel. Unlike Irene, though, equally-light-skinned-Claire’s been passing for White since she was 18, enjoying the wealth and privilege accompanying her marriage but now lonesome for the Black culture she'd grown up in.
After the women go upstairs to Claire’s quarters she tells “Reenie” she’d like to come up to Harlem for a visit, a request Irene resists as she doesn’t want her old friend’s crucial-ruse to be undone by this supposed-White-woman seen around “Negroes,” probably undoing her carefully-constructed-life. Tension further mounts for Irene (and us) as John comes in, is gracious with his wife’s friend (again, assuming from context that she’s White), then casually clarifies how he hates Blacks (based on his passing comments, we get the sense Claire’s kept up a façade of such racism as well), even laughingly calls Claire “Nig” because her skin darkens in the summer. Irene later relents on allowing Claire to visit (although Brian has plenty of dismissal about her until she actually arrives), with all of them headed off to a community dance Irene’s organized to benefit the Negro Welfare League where the Redfields meet up with Hugh Wentworth (Bill Camp), a White novelist who frequents Harlem; he's surprised to learn Claire’s actually Black but notes a growing attraction between her and Brian.
With tensions growing between our Harlem married couple due to Claire’s frequent presence—along with their disagreement over Brian telling his sons about society’s blatant hostility toward Blacks as shown by lynching in the South, Irene not wanting him to terrify these kids at such a young age—Irene tries to ban Claire from their lives but Brian counters by inviting her to a party for Hugh, where Irene’s suspicions of an affair continue to grow. This all comes to head, though, when Irene, walking along in town with a clearly-Black-friend runs into John on the street, with him immediately understanding the mistake he’s made about her and—by extension—his wife. ⇒That night Claire comes again to the Redfields’ residence so they can all go to yet another party; however, at this one John barges in, confronts his wife, is pushing toward her as she’s near a window from which she falls several stories to her death in a snow-filled-courtyard (there’s speculation in this video [10:47; ads interrupt at about 7:50]—along with concise, useful analysis of themes in the film, many Spoilers of course—about whether she was pushed by John or Irene or jumped, with only a brief, somewhat ambiguous shot to give any definitive evidence, although it looks to me like Irene pushed her, but whether to save her from ongoing agony due to John or getting her out of the way so after John’s done with her she won’t come lusting after Brian is a topic for much additional discussion). Both John and Irene testify to the police on the scene that Claire jumped, but it’s intentionally left ambiguous as to who’s covering up what, although they’re both clearly distraught over Claire’s death. With that, snowfall increases as the image steadily fades to white, then pre-credits-black.⇐
So What? Among other topics this powerful film confronts us with is the subjective assumptions we make about appearances, beginning with images we might see of debut-director Hall, an English actor (with a variety of roles from Vicky Cristina Barcelona [Woody Allen, 2008] to The Town [Ben Affleck, 2010] to Godzilla vs. Kong [Adam Wingard, 2021; review in our April 8, 2021 posting]), whom you might never suspect is ¼ Black due to her Detroit grandfather who himself passed for White. Then there’s the question of just how possibly-White either Irene or Claire look on screen here, because to me they both seem to be African-American despite how this cinematography turns everyone’s skin tones into tints/shades of grey (although Irene and Brian’s maid, Zu [Ashley Ware Jenkins] clearly is dark enough to be seen as Black [same as Brian]; further, her character easily could lead to conversations about attitudes within this Harlem community as she’s clearly treated by her employers as occupying a lower class [despite her well-appreciated-down-home-cooking-skills]).
If my inability to see these main characters as so easily passing for White should come across as offensive to anyone in any way, my apologies (hopefully due to ignorance on my part rather than unrealized-racism, yet look at these women in the interview video far below in Related Links to see how difficult I think it would be for either of them to “pass” in a color-cinematography-situation, even though Negga’s born of an Ethiopian father, Irish mother while Thompson has Mexican-British ancestry on her mother's side), but, as noted above, it’s clear that people within this story, especially John, are willing to see what they assume to be true due to the context they’ve accepted to feel comfortable with, so even Hugh, a regular-quasi-resident of Harlem, easily saw Claire as White upon first meeting her until he’s set straight by Irene. Beyond appearances, though, the deeper drama here is about how we individually go about choosing what we want, now far we’re willing to go to acquire it, as evidenced by Claire’s admission to Irene she’d do just about anything to enhance her own benefit while Brian shows us his uncomfortable side both in his easy attraction to Claire despite a supposed-stable-marriage and in his exhaustion with his sick patients, undermining any nobility he might normally register with us as a dedicated man of medicine (yet he’s also rightfully-tired of U.S. racism, wants to move to some other country in order to escape it). In that interview below, the source novel is praised for offering so much to contemplate without going into pedantic-detail on the topics raised, the case with this film as well. The acting is uniformly superb, the cinematography is gorgeous to see (especially as we’re so rarely treated to the luminescence of monochrome imagery in contemporary cinema), the conflicts simmer more so than boil over most often (although Irene’s distraction with events literally results in a symbolic-stovetop-eruption, just as her nervousness causes her to drop Brian’s family-heirloom-teapot as an indication of how she feels her own life is shattering due to Claire’s intrusions), with the entire experience becoming subtle-yet-so-devastating.
If this sort of content intrigues you there are some earlier film classics I can suggest dealing with aspects of these topics you might be interested in perusing (all of which are available cheaply for streaming on Apple TV+ [search through JustWatch for details] or Netflix DVD for subscribers to that service) including: Pinky (Elia Kazan, 1949) where (White) Jeanne Crain (nominated for Oscar’s Best Actress) is Black passing for White until a doctor proposes to her so she flees to the South to be with her grandmother (Ethel Waters, nominated for Best Supporting Actress), then stays there despite the opportunity to go back to passing in the North; Imitation of Life (Douglas Sirk, 1959) where an aspiring Broadway star (Lana Turner) becomes friends with a Black woman (Juanita Moore) whose daughter (Susan Kohner [Mexican mother]) could pass for White, pulls away from Mom, regrets it (Moore and Kohner both nominated for Best Supporting Actress); Far from Heaven (Todd Haynes, 2002) inspired somewhat by the Sirk film, this 1957-set-story is about a suburban housewife (Julianne Moore) married to a closeted gay, then falls in love with a Black man (Dennis Haysbert) but he rejects her wanting no part of integration hostilities of the time; then, in contrast, we have Loving (Jeff Nichols, 2016; review in our December 1, 2016 posting), a history-based-drama about the marriage of White Richard Loving (Joel Edgerton) to Black Mildred Loving (Ruth Negga, nominated for Best Actress) with legal challenges to their union rejected by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1967, nullifying any laws against interracial marriage. However, if you want to focus just on the concept of what one’s identity is, how it comes to be formed, how difficult it might be to maintain (all of which is at the heart of Passing even as it’s overlaid with the difficult issues of race), I’ll also recommend a masterpiece from Ingmar Bergman, Persona (1966) which you can find a bit more about in my TCM recommendations a little farther below (another cinematic experience in stunning black & white, also found on Netflix DVD or free/cheaply via streaming on a few platforms). All of these films would be well worth your time (and small fees in some cases), but don’t forget Passing as it has connections in various ways to each of them, while being extremely worthy in its own right.
Bottom Line Final Comments: The CCAL’s (rightfully) in agreement with me about the fine merits of Passing with the critics at Rotten Tomatoes yielding a highly-supportive 91% positive reviews while the usually-stingy-souls over at Metacritic have tallied an 85% average score, tied with The Green Knight (David Lowery; review in our November 4, 2021 posting) for their second highest toward 2021 releases both they and I have addressed (their #1 is a whopping 96% average score for Summer of Soul (… Or, How the Revolution Could Not Be Televised [Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson; review in our July 8, 2021 posting]), all of which proves again how great minds think alike, except when they don’t, but I try to be forgiving to these struggling evaluators when their results don’t match my keen insights (yet, they get paid and I don’t; amazing!)—a result happening often enough as of 72 reviews I’ve done so far this year of releases from 2020 or 2021 my stars-of-5-ratings have matched at least one, if not both, of these critics-accumulation-sites just 38 times (not counting 13 reviews I did of Oscar-nominated-Short Films for which they didn’t offer individual evaluations) with me frequently higher on the discrepancies. How Passing will hold up when awards nominations roll around in a month or so is always hard to tell this far out while year-end-heavyweights are coming to theaters (and home-screening-rooms), but I’d say both Thompson and Negga surely should have considerations for acting awards, although if they both end up as Best Actress contenders they’ll likely cancel each other out while if Negga were considered as a Supporting Actress (in that her screen time’s not quite the same as Thompson’s, along with the tactic of getting them both into separate categories) I feel it would be somewhat demeaning given the impact she has in this film plus the way the entire plot revolves around her presence and actions. Seemingly, Passing had a limited theatrical release in late October, but I find no evidence of such so if you want to see it (I encourage you to do so), you’ll need to be a Netflix streaming subscriber (which costs about $15 monthly but no extra fees for what you choose to see, unlike some choices on sites such as Amazon Prime Video, Disney+, or Apple TV+, even though you’re already paying their annual/monthly fees).
Until you should happen to see Passing, though, you might like listening to my usual tactic of a review-ending-Musical Metaphor, which I enjoy adding on at the close of these comments, but—unless the film itself provides me with an easy choice, as did Blue Bayou (Justin Chon; review in our recent November 4, 2021 posting)—sometimes I struggle for awhile finding a choice that’s even reasonably-connected (I admit some have pushed the idea of “metaphor” to the limit), the case this time also until I finally settled on Neil Diamond’s “I Am … I Said” (1971 Stones album) at https:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=QhEaHcQgyLs with passionate lyrics that spoke appropriately to me, “But nowadays, I’m lost between two shores [or identities …] ‘I am’ I cried ‘I am’ said I And I am lost and I can’t even say why Leavin’ me lonely still,” obviously commenting on Claire’s situation but subtly on Irene’s as well because you can tell she’s content on one level with her marriage and motherhood but seemingly is jealous of the attention Claire easily draws (especially from Brian), possibly mourning the loss of more-outgoing-traits that might provide an occasional "devil with a blue dress on" persona to accompany the saintly one she’s acquired within her community or even occasional-indulgence in passing herself as Hugh says she’d be capable of doing. Yet, to get the best impact for this Metaphor choice I’d hoped to use a rendition sung by an African-American woman (nothing personal Neil, it’s still your autobiographical song) but found none; instead, though, I’ll leave you with how one Black woman, Tysheen Orane, speaking just for herself found resonance with these lyrics while watching the same video I’ve provided for you, then talks about that a bit more regarding such universality (song runs 3:24, her video’s 6:57, although some of that’s due to her pausing to check Google, verifying Diamond’s actually from NYC [Brooklyn, to be exact] as he says).
SHORT TAKES
Suggestions for TCM cablecasts
At least until the pandemic subsides Two Guys also want to encourage you to consider movies you might be interested in that don’t require subscriptions to Netflix, Amazon Prime, similar Internet platforms (we may well be stuck inside for longer than those 30-day-free-initial-offers), or premium-tier-cable-TV-fees. While there are a good number of video networks offering movies of various sorts (mostly broken up by commercials), one dependable source of fine cinematic programming is Turner Classic Movies (available in lots of basic-cable-packages) so I’ll be offering suggestions of possible choices for you running from Thursday afternoon of the current week (I usually get this blog posted by early Thursday mornings) on through Thursday morning of the following week. All times are for U.S. Pacific zone so if you see something of interest please verify actual show time in your area for the day listed. These recommendations are my particular favorites (no matter when they’re on, although some of those early-day-ones might need to be recorded, watched later), but there’s considerably more to pick from you might like even better; feel free to explore their entire schedule here. You can also click the down arrow at the right of each listing for additional, useful info.
I’ll bet if you checked that entire schedule link just above you’d find other options of interest, but these are the only ones grabbing my attention at present. Please dig in further for other possibilities.
(Yes, I know, I get more carried away with some of these descriptions than I do with others but, trust me, they’re all well worth your consideration, for those various reasons that I’ve noted or elaborated.)
Thursday November 18, 2021
5:00 PM Young Frankenstein (Mel Brooks, 1974) Hilarious parody of the first 3 (1930s) Universal Studios Frankenstein movies with Gene Wilder embracing his mad scientist heritage, Marty Feldman as his helper, Igor, Peter Boyle as the monster, plus great roles by Cloris Leachman, Teri Garr, Gene Hackman, Madeline Kahn, Kenneth Mars. Followed on TCM by High Anxiety (Brooks, 1977), a Hitchcock parody, at 7:00 PM and Blazing Saddles (Brooks, 1974), at 9:00 PM, a parody of the westerns genre and a satire on racism (a bit of a tightrope act for the second aspect, but it works).
Saturday November 20, 2021
11:00 PM The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (Sergio Leone, 1968) Not classic in a traditional sense but maybe the best “spaghetti western” from the master of this type of story where Clint Eastwood stars, working bounty-hunter-hustles with Eli Wallach while vicious Lee Van Cleef’s in the territory, all looking for a hidden stash of Confederate gold in the Old West as double-crossings increase tension of what the outcome might be; great cinematography, an unforgettable score by Ennio Morricone.
Monday November 22, 2021
12:45 AM Persona (Ingmar Bergman, 1966) My All-Time #2 (Citizen Kane [Orson Welles, 1941 #1]), a stunning tale of 2 women: famed actor Elisabet Vogler (Liv Ullmann) who suddenly goes silent in a play, is then overseen by nurse Alma (Bibi Andersson) who takes her away to a country retreat but provides virtually all of the film’s dialogue, including speaking for Elisabet at times as these women become psychologically close with images at times beginning to blend them, all the while various devices are used to remind viewers they’re watching a constructed film, not some alternate reality up on the screen—cinematic Modernism at its best; never has the word “nothing” been so chilling. Yet, the Academy didn't nominate it as a contender for its Best Foreign Language Film Oscar race (they should be mortified). Words don’t do this difficult masterpiece justice so I encourage you to see it.
9:30 PM Singin’ in the Rain (Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen, 1952) Beloved-musical (a standard for achievement in its genre) starring Kelly, Debbie Reynolds, Donald O’Connor, Jean Hagen, and Cyd Charisse about Hollywood’s clumsy transition into sound movies, plus romance between male star and female newcomer of great potential; features the fabulous “Broadway Melody” sequence, a grand MGM spectacular, along with many songs borrowed from previous MGM musicals. Preceded at 7:30 PM by An American in Paris (Vincinte Minnelli, 1951) starring Kelly and Leslie Caron; won 6 Oscars for Best Picture, Story and Screenplay, Art Direction-Color, Cinematography-Color, Costume Design-Color, Scoring of a Musical Picture, plus an honorary award to Kelly; ends with a magnificent dance number by Kelly, Caron, and dozens of others, set to Gershwin’s An American in Paris music.
Wednesday November 24, 2021
5:00 PM Casablanca (Michael Curtiz, 1942) Do you really need my description to know what this one’s about? If so, Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Paul Henreid, Claude Rains, Conrad Veidt, Sydney Greenstreet, and Peter Lorre are “looking at you, kid,” to watch it! A movie truly defining what I consider to be a 5 stars-“classic,” celebrated for decades as a story of hope, patriotism, and making the right decision when romance conflicts with greater needs in the early years of WW II.
If you’d like your own PDF of the rating/summary of this week's review, suggestions for TCM cablecasts, links to Two Guys info click this link to access then save, print, or whatever you need.
Other Cinema-Related Stuff: A few extra items for you: (1) No strike for IATSE, contract ratified; (2) Netflix releases viewership data (Passing came in at #8 of English-language-films last week). As usual for now I’ll close out this section with Joni Mitchell’s "Big Yellow Taxi" (from her 1970 Ladies of the Canyon album)—because “You don’t know what you’ve got ‘till it’s gone”—and a reminder that you can search streaming/rental/purchase movie options at JustWatch.
Related Links Which You Might Find Interesting:
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Here’s more information about Passing:
https://www.netflix.com/title/81424320
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VWpk2rogZeI (21:49 interview with director Rebecca Hall and actors Tessa Thompson, Ruth Negga [if you want to pursue their thoughts further, this YouTube page has a couple more extended interviews with these women—and André Holland—so just refer to the column of options on the right side of the YouTube screen; also, down that list a bit is another quite relevant video, an academic lecture “A Chosen Exile: A History of Racial Passing in American Life” {28:20} at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=toyjv27q17E if you need that link to find the video])
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/passing_2021
https://www.metacritic.com/movie/passing
Please note that to Post a Comment below about our reviews you need to have either a Google account (which you can easily get at https://accounts.google.com/NewAccount if you need to sign up) or other sign-in identification from the pull-down menu below before you preview or post. You can also leave comments at our Facebook page, although you may have to somehow connect
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If you’d rather contact Ken directly rather than leaving a comment here please use my email address of kenburke409@gmail.com—type it directly if the link doesn’t work. (But if you truly have too much time on your hands you might want to explore some even-longer-and-more-obtuse-than-my-film-reviews-academic-articles about various cinematic topics at my website, https://kenburke.academia.edu which could really give you something to talk to me about.)
If we did talk, though, you’d easily see how my early-70s-age informs my references, Musical Metaphors, etc. in these reviews because I’m clearly a guy of the later 20th century, not so much the contemporary world. I’ve come to accept my ongoing situation, though, realizing we all (if fate allows) keep getting older, we just have to embrace it, as Joni Mitchell did so well in "The Circle Game," offering sage advice even when she was quite young herself.
By the way, if you’re ever at The Hotel California knock on my door—but you know what the check-out policy is so be prepared to stay for awhile (quite an eternal while, in fact). Ken
P.S. Just to show that I haven’t fully flushed Texas out of my system here’s an alternative destination for you, Home in a Texas Bar, with Gary P. Nunn and Jerry Jeff Walker. But wherever the rest of my body may be my heart’s always with my longtime-companion, lover, and wife, Nina Kindblad, so here’s our favorite shared song—Neil Young’s "Harvest Moon"
—from the performance we saw at the Desert Trip concerts in Indio, CA on October 15, 2016 (as a full moon was rising over the stadium) because “I’m still in love with you,” my dearest,
a never-changing-reality even as the moon waxes and wanes over the months/years to come. But, just as we can raunchy at times (in private of course) Neil and his backing band, Promise of the Real, on that same night also did a lengthy, fantastic version of "Cowgirl in the Sand"
(19:06) which I’d also like to commit to this blog’s always-ending-tunes; I never get tired of listening to it, then and now (one of my idle dreams is to play guitar even half this good).
But, while I’m at it, I should also include another of my top favorites, from the night before
at Desert Trip, the Rolling Stones’ "Gimme Shelter" (Wow!), a song always “just a shot
away” in my memory (along with my memory of the great drummer, Charlie Watts; RIP).
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