I have to admit I had a hard time following the plot because the movie jumps back and fourth between the present and the past and has a myriad of black characters, most of whom all look alike to me.
I came to watch this without any knowledge whatsoever of James Baldwin as an author or as a person.
It was refreshing to see a movie from a truly black perspective and from a POV from within the Pentecostal church.
It drives a deep realistic picture of the complexity of lives navigating the real world. As each character deepens you get some idea of some of the whys but it wasn't until I learned later that Baldwin was both black and gay in the 1950s that things began to make more sense.
The movie ends with this ritualistic dance in church as the main character seems to be simply putting on a good show (as his aunt just did prior to his "conversion") and gains the congratulations of the congregation that he is now "saved". This left me feeling that the author wasn't really pro-christian or a believer in the same sense that I see most Christians. It might simply require more knowledge of the Pentecostal doctrines, especially of the black churches in Harlem in the 1950s,
The movie is, for sure, a unique experience and not like any other I can recall. Definitely worth a watch, but I will come armed with a better understanding of Baldwin himself when I next watch this and hopefully it will make more sense to me the second time through.
I came to watch this without any knowledge whatsoever of James Baldwin as an author or as a person.
It was refreshing to see a movie from a truly black perspective and from a POV from within the Pentecostal church.
It drives a deep realistic picture of the complexity of lives navigating the real world. As each character deepens you get some idea of some of the whys but it wasn't until I learned later that Baldwin was both black and gay in the 1950s that things began to make more sense.
The movie ends with this ritualistic dance in church as the main character seems to be simply putting on a good show (as his aunt just did prior to his "conversion") and gains the congratulations of the congregation that he is now "saved". This left me feeling that the author wasn't really pro-christian or a believer in the same sense that I see most Christians. It might simply require more knowledge of the Pentecostal doctrines, especially of the black churches in Harlem in the 1950s,
The movie is, for sure, a unique experience and not like any other I can recall. Definitely worth a watch, but I will come armed with a better understanding of Baldwin himself when I next watch this and hopefully it will make more sense to me the second time through.