Women's Pictures - Dee Rees's Pariah
Friday, December 4, 2015 at 11:21AM Anne Marie returns after a brief break...
Over the course of this year, the purpose of our weekly "Women's Pictures" has been to explore the vast variety of female filmmakers. We've seen that women are not only present and working, but also highly diverse in their genre, style, and subject matter. Gender has often been a factor, but it has rarely been a focus. For the last month of the year, we're going to be watching films by two directors for whom gender, sexuality, and race are their focus: Dee Rees, and Celine Sciamma. Though both filmmakers have comparatively small filmographies, they have already established themselves as new, strong voices in contemporary cinema.
Dee Rees's 2011 film Pariah, based on the short of the same name, is an empathetic examination of a person usually invisible in cinema: the young black lesbian.
Lee (Adepero Oduye) is a quiet, sensitive high schooler caught between familial expectation and self-knowledge. Every day, she leaves her house dressed in earrings and babydoll shirts, then walks to school and changes in a bathroom stall. She slips on a snapback, takes off her jewelry, and shrugs into an oversized flannel and a tank top. Her family is aware of her butch gender expression, but try to either ignore in (in the case of her father), make fun of it (in the case of her sister) or "fix" it (in the case of her mother).
While the misunderstood gay kid is so often used in LGBT cinema that some argue it borders on cliche, Pariah is not a simple coming out story. Lee's interaction with her world is as much informed by her race as her gender and sexuality. At one point, Lee asks her friend to buy her a strapon to wear. She gets a white one. The scene is mostly played for laughs - especially once Lee's sister discovers her in a compromised position. Nonetheless, it shows how Lee's race is as overlooked in the LGBT community as her gender expression is in the straight community.
I've made the film sound thoroughly academic, when in fact Dee Rees has created a beautiful and soulful film. As Lee, Adepero Oduye doesn't talk much, but her silences scream loudly in an incredible breakout role. Though tall and poised in reality, Oduye hunches her shoulders like she's protecting her heart, physically expressing Lee's vulnerability and discomfort. The cinematography by Bradford Young is both intimate and stylish, mostly concentrate in medium closeups and colored lights that highlight but don't overpower Oduye's performance. Then his camera expands out in expressiv eshots of clubs, classrooms, and streets at night, making the film as beautiful as it is painful.
Dee Rees's film is a powerful story of the pain of self-expression and self-knowledge in the face of purposeful ignorance. Though Rees tells a specific story, the sympathy with which she tells it makes it all the more understandable for anyone who has found something about themselves that their family or community rejects. Honestly, I'm surprised it wasn't on more Best Films lists in 2011. With Pariah, Dee Rees established herself as an intimate, independent director.
12/10: Bessie - Dee Rees's second feature was an HBO collaboration with Queen Latifah on legendary blues singer Bessie Smith. (HBO Go)
12/17: Water Lillies - Celine Sciamma's first film was an exploration of young love in a French summer camp. (Netflix)
12/24: Tomboy - Sciamma's second film takes on the sensitive subject of trans identity in childhood. (Amazon Prime)
12/31: Girlhood - Sciamma's latest film looks at the relationships girls develop with each other in a contempoary girl's gang. (Amazon Prime)
Reader Comments (9)
Rees & Sciamma are two of the most vibrant and important voices working in cinema today. I'm so glad you've decided to dedicate December to their work. Pariah is such a beautiful film. Oduye is splendid as the lead of a brilliant cast. Fantastic piece, and I look forward to the upcoming ones!
Yes! Loved this film which I watched solely based on this site's recommendation of it.
Fun fact: Oduye was in her early thirties when she filmed this, making her believability as a teenager all that much more impressive.
Girlhood is something like my no. 1 or no. 2 or no. 3 (i can't decide!) film of the year, so I especially look forward to that one.
I, for one, am not at all surprised PARIAH didn't end up on more top ten lists. Queer cinema doesn't do much more modern critics when dealing with the expressions of somebody they cannot directly relate to (so not a movie with white gay men or famous actresses playing lesbians).
Welcome back Anne Marie, I always like checking in with this series. I must admit I had never heard of this film, but that is unfortunately not too surprising. From everyone's comments it's time to add this to my list. Thanks!
This was one of the best films of 2011. So much good work from everyone involved.
LadyEdith -- You must see it. It is so good. It almost made my top ten list in its year
Nat R - God, 2011 was such a good year for movies, wasn't it? It's the most recent year I think of as just being a really good movie year.
Just thinking about Adepero's performance makes my heart ache. Where's her star vehicle??
Thanks Lady Edith!
Glenn & Nathaniel - 2011 was a great film year, it's true. I'm still blown away by this movie though!
Chris Feil - she has a bit part in The Big Short but unfortunately I don't think Hollywood knows what to do with her. She absolutely broke my heart in Pariah. I hope Dee Rees or another director gives her a chance to do equally incredible work again.