Dee Rees made this for almost nothing and it's one of the most emotionally precise films about black queer girlhood ever made and it's not close.
Pariah understands something very specific—that coming out isn't one moment, it's a series of negotiations with everyone in your life simultaneously, and some of those negotiations you lose—and it treats that complexity with complete seriousness
Adepero Oduye is extraordinary. Alike is one of the great characters in contemporary american cinema and Oduye plays her with this quiet ferocity that never tips into melodrama even when everything around her is collapsing.
the film is shot on 16mm by bradford young, who would go on to shoot Selma and Arrival, and the cinematography is doing serious work—all that grainy brooklyn light, the contrast between the warm light of the club scenes and the cold fluorescent light of home, the camera always close and never exploitative. it's beautiful in a way that feels earned rather than aestheticized.
it ends on hope and the hope feels completely honest. one of the best films of 2011 and genuinely underseen
Dee Rees made this for almost nothing and it's one of the most emotionally precise films about black queer girlhood ever made and it's not close.
Pariah understands something very specific—that coming out isn't one moment, it's a series of negotiations with everyone in your life simultaneously, and some of those negotiations you lose—and it treats that complexity with complete seriousness
Adepero Oduye is extraordinary. Alike is one of the great characters in contemporary american cinema and Oduye plays her with this quiet ferocity that never tips into melodrama even when everything around her is collapsing.
the film is shot on 16mm by bradford young, who would go on to shoot Selma and Arrival, and the cinematography is doing serious work—all that grainy brooklyn light, the contrast between the warm light of the club scenes and the cold fluorescent light of home, the camera always close and never exploitative. it's beautiful in a way that feels earned rather than aestheticized.
it ends on hope and the hope feels completely honest. one of the best films of 2011 and genuinely underseen
