NOTHING IS BLACK AND WHITE.

In the 1920s, Irene Redfield (Tessa Thompson) gets reacquainted with a light-skinned former friend (Ruth Negga) who married a white man (Alexander Skarsgård) and let him believe that she’s also white. Rebecca Hall’s directing debut is an adaptation of a novel published in 1929, at a time when the idea of ”racial passing” was highly controversial. Very stylishly photographed in New York, the film’s beauty goes hand in glove with Hall’s delicate approach to the portrait of two women who share an emotional and challenging friendship. Thompson and Negga are fine, but everything in the film is too quiet, too muted.

2021-U.S. 99 min. B/W. Written and directed by Rebecca Hall. Novel: Nella Larsen. Cinematography: Eduard Grau. Cast: Tessa Thompson (Irene Redfield), Ruth Negga (Clare Bellew), André Holland (Brian Redfield), Bill Camp, Alexander Skarsgård, Gbenga Akinnagbe.

Trivia: Co-produced by Hall and Forest Whitaker; co-executive produced by the two stars.

IMDb