FIND MOVIES
Movie List
Loading ...
or
Find Theaters and Movie Times
or
Search Movies

Review: Pariah

Dee Rees's first feature
By PETER KEOUGH  |  January 3, 2012
2.5 2.5 Stars

Compared to the non-stop trauma of Precious, or even Gun Hill Road, Dee Rees's first feature plays like an episode of The Cosby Show. A teenager growing up in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, Alike (Adepero Oduye) has an inspiring English teacher who encourages her poetry, and she has a stable home environment with a funny, if absentee dad (Charles Parnell), an uptight, Bible-thumping mom (Kim Wayans), and a teasing but sympathetic kid sister. And she's adjusting well to her lesbianism, as her butch best friend Laura (Pernell Walker) initiates her into the world of gay night clubs, strap-ons, and the potentially uninhibited expression of her sexuality. But Alike remains closeted and a virgin, and the prospect of changing either status fills her with dread. Rees has an intimate feel for setting, rooting her melodrama in precise details while allowing for an expressionistic palette of lurid lighting. Her characters, convincingly played, avoid stereotype, with the exception of mom, the film's ultimate pariah.

  Topics: Reviews , Boston, class, Stable,  More more >
| More


Most Popular
ARTICLES BY PETER KEOUGH
Share this entry with Delicious
  •   ALTERNATIVE MEDIA AT THE BJFF  |  October 31, 2012
    After six decades of futility, maybe it's time for a new approach to achieving peace between Israelis and Palestinians. Some of the films in this year's Boston Jewish Film Festival offer solutions that sound a little crazy, except when you consider the alternatives.
  •   REVIEW: FLIGHT  |  November 01, 2012
    If Whip Whitaker (Denzel Washington) could land a doomed plane and save the lives of almost all the passengers while in the midst of a coke- and booze-fueled bender, imagine how well he'd do if he was sober.
  •   REVIEW: THE DETAILS  |  November 01, 2012
    God is not in these details. Jacob Aaron Estes's black comedy gets so dark that it's not even funny.
  •   REVIEW: A LATE QUARTET  |  November 01, 2012
    Unless Ken Russell is directing, films about musicians seldom are as exciting as the music they make.
  •   REVIEW: HOLY MOTORS  |  November 02, 2012
    Rivaling The Master in the weirdness of its opening scene, Leos Carax's first film since Pola X (1999) begins with a long take of an audience staring out at the audience watching the movie.

 See all articles by: PETER KEOUGH