A powerful, important watch for one of your evenings in this week.
As the years go by, Netflix is getting more and more invested in the Best Picture Oscar race.
In 2020, it had two nominees: The Irishman and Marriage Story.
It also had two Best Picture nominees for the 2021 awards: Mank and The Trial of the Chicago 7.
If the early predictions for the 2022 prove to be accurate, then Netflix could have as many as four nominees up for the big award.
We’ll soon be getting The Power of the Dog (released on Netflix on Wednesday, 1 December), Don’t Look Up (Friday, 24 December) and The Lost Daughter (Friday, 31 December), but before all of those, we’re getting Passing, which is released on Netflix today (Wednesday, 10 November).
Written and directed by Rebecca Hall (better known for her acting career, with roles in the likes of The Town, Iron Man 3 and The Prestige), the story revolves around two mixed-race childhood friends who reunite as adults (played by Tessa Thompson and Ireland’s own Ruth Negga), and how Irene (Thompson) now identifies as an African-American woman, while Clare (Negga) “passes” for white, having married a highly prejudiced, wealthy caucasian man.
The movie received an incredible response when it screened during some American film festivals:
Empire – “An impressive filmmaking debut from actor-turned-director Rebecca Hall which largely avoids cliché or soapboxing about race, featuring two excellent performances from Tessa Thompson and Ruth Negga.”
Variety – “This radically intimate exploration of the desperately fraught concept of ‘passing’ – being Black but pretending to be white – ought to be too ambitious for a first-time filmmaker, but Hall’s touch is unerring, deceptively delicate, quiet and immaculate, like that final fall of snow.”
The New Yorker – “Passing is a drama of vision and of inner vision, of appearances and images and self-images, and Hall’s spare and reserved cinematic style serves to emphasize the inward aspect of the action, its crises of consciousness.”
Check out the trailer for Passing right here:
Clip via Netflix
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