Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor Archives

Review: ‘Exhibiting Forgiveness,’ starring André Holland, John Earl Jelks, Andra Day and Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor

October 19, 2024

by Carla Hay

André Holland and John Earl Jelks in “Exhibiting Forgiveness” (Photo courtesy of Roadside Attractions)

Directed by Titus Kaphar

Culture Representation: Taking place in the 2020s, with flashbacks to the 1990s, mostly in New Jersey, the dramatic film “Exhibiting Forgiveness” features a predominantly African American cast of characters (with some white people) representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.

Culture Clash: A successful and talented painter artist has his emotional well-being thrown into turmoil when his estranged father comes back into his life and wants to reconcile.

Culture Audience: “Exhibiting Forgiveness” will appeal mainly to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners and impactful dramas about generational trauma and family relationships.

André Holland and Daniel Michael Barriere in “Exhibiting Forgiveness” (Photo courtesy of Roadside Attractions)

“Exhibiting Forgiveness” presents an authentically raw and poignant story of a painter artist navigating different emotions when his estranged father comes back into his life. This well-acted drama skillfully shows various perspectives. Some of the narrative is a little jumbled in the beginning, but the movie gets better as it goes along.

Written and directed by Titus Kaphar, “Exhibiting Forgiveness” is his feature-film directorial debut. “Exhibiting Forgiveness” had its world premiere at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival. The movie (which was filmed location in New Jersey and in New York) is largely inspired by experiences from Kaphar’s own life. All of the artwork for the movie’s protagonist is Kaphar’s own artwork.

In “Exhibiting Forgiveness,” protagonist Tarrell Rodin (played by André Holland) is a talented painter artist who lives in his native New Jersey and seems to have it all: He’s happily married to his singer/songwriter wife Aisha (played by Andra Day); they are loving and devoted parents to an adorable and intelligent son named Jermaine (played by Daniel Michael Barriere), who is about 4 or 5 years old; and Tarrell’s career is on the rise, thanks to a recently critically acclaimed exhibit of his art.

But underneath this seemingly middle-class bliss, Tarrell is struggling with trauma and emotional damage from his childhood. Throughout the movie, it’s shown that Tarrell has used his art (which consists mostly of “slice of life” portraits of people and things in his life) as a form of therapy, in addition to being a way to express himself. The main cause of Tarrell’s unhappy childhood is his estranged father La’Ron (played by John Earl Jelks), nicknamed Ronnie to some people.

Flashbacks show that when Tarrell was about 12 or 13 years old (played by Ian Foreman), he worked part-time with La’Ron, who had his own lawn care/landscaping business. Tarrell was La’Ron’s only “employee,” although the movie implies that Tarrell probably wasn’t paid much if he was paid at all. La’Ron was seriously addicted to crack cocaine for almost all of Tarrell’s childhood. La’Ron was verbally and physically abusive to Tarrell and to Tarrell’s mother Joyce (played by Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor), who worked in an unnamed service industry job.

One of the heart-wrenching scenes in the movie is when young Tarrell accidentally steps on a nail while working with La’Ron. It’s a deep injury that causes a lot of bleeding and pain. Instead of taking Tarrell to a hospital for medical care, La’Ron shouts at Tarrell to toughen up like a man and keep working. He forces Tarrell to mow a lawn and do other work with this injured foot.

While Tarrell is a passenger in La’Ron’s truck, Tarrell then sees La’Ron take the money they made that day and drive to a drug dealer to buy crack cocaine. A disgusted and anguished Tarrell then decides to walk home while limping from his foot injury. His mother Joyce finds out what happens and takes him to a hospital.

Tarrell, who is now in his 40s, shows signs of post-traumatic stress disorder. He has nightmares but won’t talk about it with Aisha, who has grown frustrated because Tarrell is reluctant to take her advice to seek therapy. “I can’t do this with you anymore,” Aisha says in exasperation after Tarrell wakes up from another bad dream but won’t talk about it. “Call a doctor,” she adds. Tarrell says not-very-convincingly: “I will.”

After his current art exhibit gets a glowing review from an influential art critic, Tarrell’s agent Janine (played by Jaime Ray Newman) is ecstatic because she thinks this review can boost his career. “You got a fucking brilliant review from a critic who hates everything,” Janine says. Tarrell’s reaction seems to be that he doesn’t really care because he has other things on his mind.

The first time La’Ron is seen on screen, he is homeless and is in a convenience store that gets robbed. La’Ron tries to stop the robber, whose name is Tommy (played by Justin Hofstad), but Tommy beats up La’Ron and flees. La’Ron then finds a place to stay at a halfway house for recovering addicts. The halfway house has a strict 8 p.m. curfew for residents, who are also required to attend recovery meetings.

Because the movie introduces La’Ron in this way, he might generate automatic sympathy from viewers who see him as a down-on-his-luck vagrant/recovering addict who is trying to get his life together and on a path to recovery. And when La’Ron tries to reconnect with Tarrell at Joyce’s house, viewers might wonder why Tarrell is so angry at La’Ron and so resistant to forgiving him. “Exhibiting Forgiveness” reveals there’s more to La’Ron than what he appears to be in the movie’s first few scenes of him.

The flashbacks then show why Tarrell is so resentful toward La’Ron. These flashbacks might or might not change viewers opinions of La’Ron. These two sides of La’Ron will make viewers wonder if he deserves forgiveness or not. “Exhibiting Forgiveness” also invites viewers to ponder this question: “Who’s the best person to judge if La’Ron has really changed?”

Meanwhile, Joyce (who is very religious) has already forgiven La’Ron and wants Tarrell to do the same. Joyce acts as a mediator between La’Ron and Tarrell. “He’s trying,” Joyce pleads to Tarrell. “He’s changed.” She tells La’Ron: “You need to make peace with your son. You’re not going to back out on your promise this time.”

La’Ron insists that he’s been clean and sober, but that isn’t enough to convince Tarrell. Aisha meets La’Ron for the first time during this uncomfortable reunion. Later, Tarrell comments about La’Ron to Aisha: “I just thought the first time you would meet him would be in his casket.”

Finally, Tarrell agrees to have a one-on-one conversation with La’Ron and tries to connect with him in the best way that he knows how: through art. Tarrell brings a video camera and starts interviewing and filming La’Ron like a documentary filmmaker. Tarrell asks questions to La’Ron about La’Ron’s life story. And for the first time, Tarrell hears about La’Ron’s childhood (La’Ron also had an abusive father and a “saintly” mother) and how La’Ron got addicted to crack.

“Exhibiting Forgiveness” is also a movie about how denial and blocking out bad memories are ways that some people cope with trauma. Joyce is an example of this type of coping. In one of the movie’s most emotionally charged scenes, Joyce has a visceral reaction when Tarrell reminds her of a low point that he witnessed as a child during her troubled relationship with La’Ron.

It’s never made clear if La’Ron and Joyce officially divorced or have remained legally separated. But now that La’Ron is back in the neighborhood, Joyce almost seems giddy and ready to rekindle whatever romance that they had. She repeatedly tells people that La’Ron was her first love, as if that’s reason enough to welcome him back into her life. Joyce doesn’t want to be reminded that “first love” doesn’t always mean “healthy love.”

“Exhibiting Forgiveness” gets so wrapped up in the story of Tarrell and La’Ron, it somewhat falls short in having interesting details about Aisha and how she’s being affected by this family reunion. Because singer/actress Day first became known as a singer, “Exhibiting Forgiveness” at times seems more like a showcase for Day’s singing talent rather than character development for Aisha. Day performs an original song called “Bricks” in the movie.

The written words of James Baldwin and Maya Angelou are featured intermittently in the movie. These quotes come across as arty or pretentious, depending on your perspective. Holland, Jelks and Ellis-Taylor give compelling and very believable performances of three people who are flawed in their own ways and are trying to find a way to heal with dignity. “Exhibiting Forgiveness” doesn’t get preachy or too sentimental. Rather, it shows in unflinching ways that people can take different paths and have different versions of forgiveness that don’t always guarantee a happy ending for everyone.

Roadside Attractions released “Exhibiting Forgiveness” in U.S. cinemas on October 18, 2024.

Review: ‘Nickel Boys,’ starring Ethan Herisse, Brandon Wilson, Hamish Linklater, Fred Hechinger, Daveed Diggs and Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor

September 27, 2024

by Carla Hay

“Nickel Boys”

Directed by RaMell Ross

Culture Representation: Taking place in Florida and in New York City, from the late 1950s to 2003, the dramatic film “Nickel Boys” (based on the novel “The Nickel Boys”) features a predominantly African American cast of characters (with some white people and a few Latinos) representing the working-class and middle-class.

Culture Clash: Two teenage boys become friends while they live at at a reform school and endure an oppressive, abusive and racist environment.

Culture Audience: “Nickel Boys” will appeal mainly to people who are fans of filmmaker RaMell Ross, the book and which the movie is based, and well-acted movies about how people process childhood trauma.

Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor in “Nickel Boys” (Photo courtesy of Orion Pictures)

Artfully made and absorbing to watch, “Nickel Boys” is a risk-taking drama that makes unorthodox choices about memories and perspectives. Inspired by real events about a reform school that abused teenage boys, this movie also has compelling acting. It’s the type of movie that will test the patience of viewers who might be expecting a more traditional narrative structure. But for open-minded movie fans who appreciate bold, artistic moves in cinema, “Nickel Boys” is like watching an unpredictable formation of a mosaic. “Nickel Boys” had its world premiere at the 2024 Telluride Film Festival and later screened at the 2024 New York Film Festival.

Directed by RaMell Ross (who co-wrote the “Nickel Boys” screenplay with Joslyn Barnes), “Nickel Boys” is adapted from Colson Whitehead’s Pulitzer Prize-winning 2019 novel “The Nickel Boys.” The book is loosely based on the real-life story of the Florida School for Boys, also known as the Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys, which was a state-operated reform school in Marianna, Florida, from 1900 to 2011. The school was permanently shut down after numerous lawsuits and a U.S. Department of Justice investigation uncovered decades of torture and other abuse against children who were at the reform school.

“Nickel Boys” (which takes place from the late 1950s to 2003) tells the non-chronological story of Elwood Curtis, whose life changes forever due to an unfortunate series of circumstances. In 1962, Elwood (played by Ethan Herisse) is a bright, empathetic and socially conscious 16-year-old, who will soon turn 17. Elwood’s parents are deceased.

Elwood lives with his widowed grandmother Hattie (played by Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor) in the racially segregated community of Frenchtown, Florida. Hattie (who works as a hotel maid) and Elwood have hope for and enthusiastic interest in the burgeoning U.S. civil rights movement led by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., even though Hattie and her co-workers have been ordered not to talk about politics when they’re on the job. Elwood excels in academics and has a promising future.

Elwood has a teacher/mentor named Mr. Hill (played by Jimmie Fails), who recommends Elwood for an advanced-placement academy program called the Melvin Griggs Technical School, which has college-level courses but accepts intellectually gifted high school students for enrollment. Mr. Hill is also involved in the civil rights movement. When a student asks Mr. Hill if he’s a Freedom Rider and how he got a scar on his head, Mr. Hill replies: “Nashville. A white man slugged me with a tire iron.”

One day, Elwood accepts a car ride from a man driving an emerald turquoise Impala. Elwood doesn’t know this man, who appears to be friendly and helpful. Elwood isn’t in the car for very long when the car is pulled over by a racist cop, who pulls the driver by the ear and tells him the car has been reported stolen and “only spooks” steal this type of car. Elwood is in the wrong place at the wrong time, so he is arrested and charged with being a theft accomplice.

“Nickel Boys” doesn’t show Elwood’s courtroom proceedings because the movie makes a point that Elwood was going to be found guilty no matter what, in a system that is racially biased and stacked against people who can’t afford good legal representation. Elwood gets sentenced to Nickel Academy, a reform school for boys. It becomes a terrible experience where he is desperate to escape.

On the surface, Nickel Academy tries to give the impression that this institution truly cares about making these boys into better people. When new enrollees first arrive, they are told about the four levels of existence at Nickel Academy, where reaching the highest level will supposedly get an enrollee released from Nickel Academy. The lowest level is being a Grub, which is the level that all new enrollees are automatically assigned. From there, an enrollee can work his way up to being an Explorer, then a Pioneer, and then the highest level: Ace.

But the reality is that Nickel Academy is an institution that regularly abuses boys who are imprisoned there. In addition to getting vicious beatings and whippings, boys are often locked in solitary confinement in unsanitary conditions and sweltering temperatures. It’s also a racially charged environment because the people on the receiving end of this abuse are mostly black, while the people in authority positions are white. The people in power at this school include a sadistic administrator named Spencer (played by Hamish Linklater) and a bullying school employee in his 20s named Harper (played by Fred Hechinger), who is essentially a henchman who eagerly inflicts abuse and punishment.

Elwood starts off as an introverted loner at Nickel Academy. But he strikes up a tentative acquaintance with Jack Turner (played by Brandon Wilson), who likes to be called by his last name and appears to be more street-smart and tougher that Elwood. As the two teens get to know each other better and become close friends, it becomes apparent to both of them that Elwood has more bravery when it comes to fighting against injustice. Elwood is also the one who is more likely to meticulously plan an escape.

Meanwhile, Elwood’s separation from his protective and worried grandmother Hattie takes a toll on her mental health. There’s a heartbreaking scene where she’s alone at her kitchen and begins talking out loud to herself while cutting slices of frosted cake. Ellis-Taylor isn’t a main character in “Nickel Boys,” but her performance has an indelible impact on the emotional core of the movie.

Because the story of “Nickel Boys” is mainly about the friendship between Elwood and Turner, other enrollees at Nickel Academy don’t get much character depth. Two of the teenage side characters who get some screen time are (1) physically large Griff (played by Luke Tennie), a student boxer who is exploited for money by academy officials and (2) Jaime (played by Bryan Gael Guzman), a friendly and somewhat bashful Latino who is often shunned or excluded by other students because he isn’t black or white.

The movie’s scenes with middle-aged Elwood (played by Daveed Diggs) unfold gradually to reveal what he did with his life after he left Nickel Academy. Without giving away too much information, it’s enough to say that he moved to New York City not long after his hellish experience at Nickel Academy and has been living in New York City ever since. In the early 2000s, Elwood’s bad memories about Nickel Academy are triggered when he finds out that Nickel Academy has been in the news for horrific discoveries that were made about the academy.

“Nickel Boys” (which has cinematography by Jomo Fray) often has extreme close-ups of people or objects that could be somewhat jarring to viewers who want to see everything in that scene. But these extreme close-ups force viewers to pay more attention to the dialogue rather than get distracted by what’s in the background. The lighting and hues in the movie range from vibrant when Elwood’s life is bursting with optimism to bleak when Elwood’s life reaches depressing low points.

There’s one particular flashback scene early on in the movie that is example of how these extreme close-ups make the movie look more artistic: In a scene taking place in the late 1950s, when Elwood (played by Ethan Cole Sharp) is about 11 or 12 years old. His grandmother Hattie is ironing something, and as her iron slides back and forth, Elwood can be seen reflected in the iron.

The camera’s point of view often switches back and forth from a first-person angle to an observational angle. When the middle-aged Elwood is on screen, his face isn’t fully shown until much later in the movie. “Nickel Boys” also has interludes of real-world archival footage as context and comparison.

Clips from the 1958 dramatic film “The Defiant Ones” (starring Sidney Poitier and Tony Curtis as prison escapees) are shown when Elwood is in a situation where he and someone else are entangled with law enforcement. For example, when Elwood is in the back of a police car with someone, there’s also a similar clip of Poitier and Curtis in the back of a police vehicle. “The Defiant Ones” is an interesting choice because it’s a movie that was controversial in its time because of its observations of race relations and the criminal justice system.

Beyond the unconventional camera angles and somewhat abstract editing, “Nickel Boys” has a very talented principal cast authentically conveying the complex experiences of their characters. Herisse and Wilson are a dynamic duo together and separately in their portrayals of two teens fighting to keep their sanity and dignity when trapped in a cruel institution that wants to do permanent harm to them. Diggs also shines in his role as middle-aged Elwood, who is an example of survivor resilience.

“Nickel Boys” might get some criticism from people who think the world has more than enough movies about racism, child abuse and other struggles experienced by people who are often oppressed and exploited. However, even though “Nickel Boys” is a story that takes place in the past, the movie also serves as a reminder that these injustices are still going on today. And with children in institutions often being the targets of these crimes, “Nickel Boys” is also an urgent wake-up call to hold institutions accountable when they do more harm than good.

Amazon MGM Studios’ Orion Pictures will release “Nickel Boys” in select U.S. cinemas on December 13, 2024.

Review: ‘Origin’ (2023), starring Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor

December 10, 2023

by Carla Hay

Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor in “Origin” (Photo by Atsushi Nishijima/Neon)

“Origin” (2023)

Directed by Ava DuVernay

Some language in German and Hindi with subtitles

Culture Representation: Taking place in the United States, Germany, and India, the dramatic film “Origin” (based on the non-fiction book “Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents”) features an African American, white and Asian cast of characters representing the working-class and middle-class.

Culture Clash: After experiencing two major deaths in her family, a grieving non-fiction author decides to write a book investigating how societal prejudices around the world are interconnected through different forms of caste systems, even though some people are skeptical that this is a viable concept for a research book.

Culture Audience: “Origin” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of filmmaker Ava DuVernay and movies that take uncomfortable but necessary looks at how harmful societal prejudices come in many different forms but have the same goals of oppressing other people.

“Origin” weaves a meaningful cinematic tapestry that shows how societal prejudices are interconnected. The acting performances in this drama are admirable, but some viewers might think the movie’s pacing is too slow. “Origin” also presents multiple timeline-jumping storylines alongside the main story. This juggling of different stories in one movie might not appeal to everyone, with some viewers thinking that this narrative is too cluttered and messy. “Origin” (which had its world premiere at the 2023 Venice International Film Festival) is best appreciated by people who have the patience to watch a layered 135-minute movie with no distractions.

Written and directed by Ava DuVernay (who is one of the movie’s producers), “Origin” is based on American journalist-turned-author Isabel Wilkerson’s best-selling 2020 non-fiction book “Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents.” In the book, Pulitzer Prize-winning Wilkerson presents the theory that caste systems based on societal prejudices have caused various forms of damaging oppression around the world. In “Origin,” Wilkerson (played by Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, also known as Aunjanue Ellis) is the movie’s main character, who researches this theory by using three main examples: racism in the United States, the Holocaust in Europe, and the caste system in India.

Racism in the United States includes scenes and mentions about the Trayon Martin tragedy of 2012, when 17-year-old Martin (who was unarmed) was shot and killed in Sanford, Florida, by a man who followed Martin and called 911 to report that Martin looked suspicious. (Myles Frost portrays Martin in “Origin.”) The killing of Martin is widely considered to be a flashpoint for the start of the Black Lives Matter movement.

At the time this tragedy occurred, Isabel is shown to be in a happy interracial marriage with her husband Brett Hamilton (played by Jon Bernthal), who is a mathematician and financial analyst. Isabel’s widowed mother Ruby Wilkerson (played by Emily Yancy), who uses a wheelchair, lives with Isabel and Brett. Isabel and Brett, who do not have children, have an upper-middle-class lifestyle where they go to parties attended by affluent and intellectual people. It’s at one of these parties where Isabel (a former newspaper journalist) is approached by her former editor Amari Selvan (played by Blair Underwood) to do a news article on the Martin tragedy, but she declines the request because she says she doesn’t want to be a journalist anymore.

Although things are going well in the marriage of Isabel and Brett, the spouses have to grapple with the difficult decision of putting Ruby in an assisted living facility when Ruby’s physical condition requires more medical attention than what Isabel and Brett can provide in their home. Isabel has a close emotional bond with Ruby, as well as with Isabel’s cousin Marion Wilkerson (played by Niecy Nash-Betts). Within a year, two of these family members will be dead.

A grieving Isabel then gets the idea to write “Caste” and goes on an international journey to do research for the book. (“Origin” was filmed in Germany, India, and the American cities of Montgomery in Alabama and Savannah in Georgia.) Ellis-Taylor gives a very good performance as the quietly determined Isabel, whose grief is not just on a personal level but also on a collective level for all the suffering and inhumanity that she has to report in her book.

While Isabel is on this research journey (she travels to Germany and India), “Origin” simultaneously shows stories that took place in the past. In 1930s Nazi-controlled Germany, African American husband-and-wife scholars Allison Davis (played by Isha Carlos Blaaker) and Elizabeth Davis (played by Jasmine Cephas Jones) experience racism when they are visiting in Berlin. The racist Germans whom Allison and Elizabeth encounter are openly hostile in their disbelief that black people can be well-educated and intelligent.

Meanwhile, a German shipyard worker named August Landmesser (played by Finn Wittrock), a gentile whose community is largely supportive of the Nazi antisemitic agenda, has to decide how he’s going to handle his secret romance with a Jewish woman named Irma Eckler (played by Victoria Pedretti), who wants to be more publicly open about their relationship. Allison and Elizabeth later team up with Harvard University anthropology spouses Burleigh Gardner (played by Matthew Zuk) and Mary Gardner (played by Hannah Pniewski) for an undercover social experiment that won’t be revealed in this review but is shown in the movie.

When Isabel is in India, she does deep-dive research into the caste system and learns more about the horrible treatment of Dalit people, who are considered the lowest of the low in India’s hierarchal society. Isabel also becomes familiar with the teachings of India’s former minister of law and justice Dr. Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar, a controversial Dalit leader who fought for the civil rights of Dalit people. The parts of “Origin” that take place in India seem a little rushed in toward the end of the film.

The problem that some people might have with “Origin” is that it takes close to an hour into the movie before Isabel starts her research journey. The backstory about her family and the August/Irma romance fill up most of the first half of the film. “Origin” certainly could have used better film editing in this first half. For example, the movie really didn’t need to spend as much time as it did showing Isabel and Brett doing a search for an assisted living facility for Ruby.

A few notable actors have cameos in the parts of “Origin” that take place in the United States. Audra McDonald has the role of Miss Hale, one of the people who’s interviewed by Isabel for the book. Miss Hale shares vivid and painful memories of experiencing racism as a child.

Connie Nielsen has the role of Sabine, a German who meets Isabel in Germany, during a small dinner party at the home of their mutual friend Ulrich (played by John Hans Tester). Sabine is skeptical of Isabel’s theory that the Nazis in 1930s Germany used racial segregation and slavery laws from the United States as a blueprint for the Holocaust. Sabine thinks the book’s concept is flawed and doesn’t hesitate to tell Isabel her opinions. Sabine says that slavery in the United States was about “subjugation,” while the Holocaust in Europe was about “extermination.”

In an earlier scene, Nick Offerman has the role of a plumber named Dave, who visits Isabel’s home to fix a plumbing problem in her basement. Dave wears a Make America Great Again hat (a signature look of Donald Trump supporters), which is supposed to signal that he’s the type of politically conservative person who might clash with politically liberal Isabel. However, the conversation that Isabel and Dave have in the movie will surprise viewers who might be expecting some type of confrontation.

“Origin” takes a while to get to the heart of the story, but its approach to the subject matter should be admired for not being entirely predictable. Just like Wilkerson did in “Caste,” DuVernay wants viewers of “Origin” to understand that although certain laws exist that have banned slavery and genocide in certain countries that have been notorious for both, the toxic prejudices that fueled these horrors still exist in one form or another. By bringing together stories that take place in various time periods, “Origin” succeeds in its intention to show people a deeply moving film that exemplifies Spanish philosopher George Santayana’s famous quote about the pitfalls of forgetting what history has taught: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

Neon released “Origin” in select U.S. cinemas on December 8, 2023, with a wider release in U.S. cinemas on January 19, 2024.