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Jan 10, 2024 · “The Book of Clarence,” the religious epic by multi-hyphenate talent Jeymes Samuel, is a handsomely crafted picture that simply loses the plot.Built around Clarence (LaKeith Stanfield), a street hustler living in A.D. 33 Jerusalem, Samuel’s script is a farcical exploitation flick forcibly reaching for political relevance under the misbegotten expectation that every Black film must be ...
Jan 11, 2024 · “The Book of Clarence,” too, stretches that premise out to a comic effect, though it eventually turns tragic. This film is considerably more serious and reverent about its topic than poor ...
- Jeymes Samuels puts faith in a mash-up of satire, silliness, and Sunday school
- The Book of Clarence Review
- Who's the best onscreen Jesus?
- Verdict
By Leila Latif
Updated: Jan 11, 2024 8:27 pm
Posted: Oct 20, 2023 4:27 pm
The Book of Clarence is now playing in theaters. This review is based on a screening at the 2023 BFI London Film Festival.
It’s reductive to watch a film and ask “Who is this for?” A film can be for any person. For those from marginalized communities, cinema that reflects your lived experience, your culture, and your values can be thin on the ground. Opening up your mind in the movie theater to take in a worldview that challenges and expands your own, allowing yourself to be surprised by shifts in tone and philosophy and laughing at what you assumed could never be made funny is one of the greatest gifts cinema can provide.
That being said: Who the hell is The Book Of Clarence for? To question what audience is after an extremely violent comedy about a stoned false Messiah in ancient Jerusalem – one that surreally satirizes present-day racism, has a musical number, and steadfastly holds Black Jesus as our one true savior – is not to say the movie is bad. Jeymes Samuel’s follow-up to his audacious Black western The Harder They Fall has much of the flair and flavor that made his debut such a joy – it’s hard to remember a Black period film as fun, exciting, and absurd. While the Wild West was no cakewalk for its Black inhabitants, Samuels sets his latest in an inordinately brutal period in history: The year is 33 AD, in the few weeks prior to Jesus Christ’s crucifixion. The occupying (all white) Roman forces wreak havoc on Jerusalem’s (all Black) inhabitants and set about mounting anyone they deem a false messiah on a cross.
We are aware that this fate awaits the eponymous Clarence (LaKeith Stanfield), thanks to an opening shot of a group of crucified men that slowly closes in on Stanfield's soulful eyes, staring directly at the audience as blood drips from nails in his hands and feet. The story then flashes back a month prior with Clarence and his trusty sidekicks Elijah (the always charming RJ Cyler) losing a chariot race to a badass Mary Magdalene (Teyana Taylor). Upon their defeat, they have no choice but to beg for the mercy of King Jedediah the Terrible (Eric Kofi-Abrefa) for losing his chariot; as compensation, he’ll accept either money (within a month) or their lives. Clarence at first considers becoming one of Jesus’ apostles to afford himself some protection, just as his twin brother Thomas (also played by Stanfield) has. But soon it seems skipping a step would be easier, and Clarence decides to give the whole messiah routine a go himself. At this point a creeping discomfort begins to set in, not because the film goes off the rails, but because it’s distracting to imagine the discourse that will emerge from a pro-Christian film about a false Black messiah protagonist who crosses paths with a quippy, dreadlocked Jesus.
Some of the satire is more crowd-pleasing: The running gag of Romans who behave like a bunch of Karens and corrupt cops never gets old, claiming victimhood when they are the aggressors and harassing the Black populations with persistent requests for ID (which, hilariously, are tiny scrolls of papyrus). Samuels has a knack for landing even the silliest of punchlines but also turns the style up to 11. Brothels become Afrofuturistic fantasies straight out of an '00s Hype Williams music video; drug dens have patrons floating into the clouds, tethered only by a loose grip on a hookah pipe. This version of Jerusalem, at times, feels a little underpopulated – when Clarence sets out to free enslaved gladiators, its just a handful of dudes – but everything onscreen is exquisitely colourful and lit with rare precision to an achingly cool hip-hop and R&B soundtrack.
Willem Dafoe in The Last Temptation of Christ
Ted Neeley in Jesus Christ Superstar
Leon Robinson in Like a Prayer
Robert Powell in Jesus of Nazareth
Jim Caviezel in Passion of the Christ
Kenneth Colley in Monty Python's Life of Brian
Jeymes Samuel’s take on the final weeks before Jesus’s crucifixion may not entirely come together, but it is an admirably bold swing. Told from the point of view of Clarence (LaKeith Stanfield), a local drug dealer who has a month to pay off his debt, he decides the surest path to avoiding execution is becoming a Messiah, despite Jesus having large...
Rated: 2/5 Apr 20, 2024 Full Review John Serba Decider That rousing speech by Stanfield is the most powerful moment in The Book of Clarence, but the movie doesn’t hold to that declaration – it ...
- (111)
- Jeymes Samuel
- PG-13
- Lakeith Stanfield
Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Apr 16, 2024. Tessa Smith Mama's Geeky. This movie tries to do too much in that it wants to be a biblical comedy, drama, and love story, but rarely succeeds at ...
Jan 9, 2024 · Clarence is called the “village’s mischief maker” and even his mother thinks he needs to get his act together. “I’m not a nobody,” he tells his twin brother, Thomas (also Stanfield, naturally). “A man who lacks honor is a nobody,” his brother replies. We know things are going to end painfully for Clarence because one of the ...
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Apr 17, 2024 · The Book of Clarence stands on its own as a comedy-drama with engaging characters and an emotive narrative, but it’s probably best enjoyed by those vaguely familiar with the Bible, regardless of their beliefs. Samuel has put a lot of thought, detail and knowledge of the New Testament into his screenplay, using familiar characters to play with ...
