Star in the making shines
Luce (M, 109 mins) Directed by Julius Onah Reviewed by Graeme Tuckett ★★★★1⁄2
Agood friend of mine, a cinematographer, is fond of saying that the difference between shooting a film and shooting a TV show is that a TV script only requires you to shoot what’s written on the page.
But, in film, you also have to capture everything that’s in the white spaces between the words.
It’s a good enough analogy, even if this golden age of high-quality TV we thankfully find ourselves living through has blurred the edges between what defines a film and a TV show – a lot.
I reckon my mate’s observation also once applied to the actors. There was a time when there wasn’t much more to small-screen acting than just getting the words out and trying to avoid tripping over the furniture. And the movies weren’t always a lot better.
But, in the past few decades, even our TV shows have become chocka with brilliant performers all emoting like their lives depended on it.
Kelvin Harrison Jr, the youngish star and title character of
Luce, takes the art of the wordless scene to some rarefied heights, even in a time in which we have become so used to stunning performances on our screens we barely notice them any more.
Playing an Eritrean war refugee, adopted into a white North American family and now a star high-school scholar and athlete,
Harrison’s Luce walks a tightrope of possible duplicity in every exchange.
As accusations of threatening a teacher and assaulting a classmate swirl around him, Luce keeps us guessing right up to the end – and beyond.
It’s not often a high-school drama featuring nothing more violent than a bag of fireworks exploding gets labelled a ‘‘thriller’’, but that is what Luce is.
It is also a film that will provoke some great conversations as the credits roll.
Naomi Watts and Tim Roth are reliably excellent as Luce’s adoptive parents. And Octavia
Spencer gets to really step up as the conflicted and abrasive teacher who is either Luce’s greatest ally, or worst foe.
Holding it all together, as the ambivalent and complex Luce, Harrison Jr turns in a performance that really should make him a star.
Luce is a nuanced, provocative and proudly intelligent film of ideas. Writer/director Julius Onah (The Girl is in Trouble) has a lot to say but, with this powerhouse cast, he saves some of his best moments for the quiet spaces, between the words. Very recommended.
Luce is available now on Lightbox and iTunes.