Rustin (film)
2023
Search results
Jan 10, 2024 · A religious epic by Jeymes Samuel that follows a street hustler in ancient Jerusalem who poses as a new messiah. The film is a farcical exploitation flick that loses the plot and the tone, with a miscast LaKeith Stanfield and a cringe-worthy political message.
A comedy film about a man who joins a cult of Jesus and his apostles. Read critics and audience reviews, watch the trailer, and find out where to rent or buy the movie.
- (110)
- Jeymes Samuel
- PG-13
- Lakeith Stanfield
Jan 11, 2024 · “The Book of Clarence” is undeniably a faith-driven movie, despite its elements that would never show up in a release from the conventional Christian film industry.
Full Review | Original Score: 4.5/5 | Jan 19, 2024. Rotten Tomatoes, home of the Tomatometer, is the most trusted measurement of quality for Movies & TV. The definitive site for Reviews,...
- 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
- GeneratedCaptionsTabForHeroSec
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...
A comedy about a Black false Messiah in ancient Jerusalem that satirizes racism and religion. The film has style, humor, and a great cast, but also tonal shifts and a muddled message.
Oct 12, 2023 · LaKeith Stanfield stars as a fake messiah in Jeymes Samuel's revisionist film that mixes humor and Christianity. The film is stylish and confident, but struggles to balance comedy and drama in its third act.
Apr 20, 2024 · The Book of Clarence review – a rival Messiah or a very naughty boy? | Comedy films | The Guardian. ‘The apostles stride through the city to a soundtrack of 70s-style power funk’: LaKeith...
