Amiri Baraka is a poet. When you critique this movie, or even intend to appreciate this movie, you have to keep that in mind. You're watching poetry turned into a play turned into a movie. I must admit I was a little concerned about how a conversation between two people on a subway train was going to entertain me for an hour, but it did.
I hear a lot of people talking about how Shirley Jackson overacted, but it was clearly done on purpose and done so with gusto. Lula isn't an obnoxious girl in a skimpy dress and sandals, she is a blazing beacon for the destruction of a culture. I vastly appreciated and quite frankly was in awe at how masterfully inhuman she was in this film. Something as terrible as Lula isn't supposed to be played as understated or restrained or demure. She is a murderer, and she represents centuries of hatred..every unhinged, upstaging part of her. Al Freeman Jr. was equally as impressive in his own rite, and his part DID call for restraint, until the end that is. The language used in the film is beautiful in all of its basement dinginess. Don't expect to understand every word or sentence. A lot of it is supposed to evoke a mood rather than make sense literally. If you want to see a minimal but bone-crushingly powerful and inspiring meditation on the terpitude of our culture, of EVERYONE'S culture, then check out this movie. You'll be thinking about it for a while.
I hear a lot of people talking about how Shirley Jackson overacted, but it was clearly done on purpose and done so with gusto. Lula isn't an obnoxious girl in a skimpy dress and sandals, she is a blazing beacon for the destruction of a culture. I vastly appreciated and quite frankly was in awe at how masterfully inhuman she was in this film. Something as terrible as Lula isn't supposed to be played as understated or restrained or demure. She is a murderer, and she represents centuries of hatred..every unhinged, upstaging part of her. Al Freeman Jr. was equally as impressive in his own rite, and his part DID call for restraint, until the end that is. The language used in the film is beautiful in all of its basement dinginess. Don't expect to understand every word or sentence. A lot of it is supposed to evoke a mood rather than make sense literally. If you want to see a minimal but bone-crushingly powerful and inspiring meditation on the terpitude of our culture, of EVERYONE'S culture, then check out this movie. You'll be thinking about it for a while.