Rustin (2023)

After Ma Rainey's Black Bottom Wolfe became one of the film makers I was most fascinated with. His energetic story telling style, use of colour and movement, and the way he connected music to his characters and narrative was exciting to me. As a queer film maker of colour his opportunity to tell the story of one of America's most important gay black men seemed like the perfect sort of Hollywood synergy. And now that the film has finally been released, Rustin lives up to its promise and is one of the most exciting films of 2023. 

Colman Domingo is the sort of character actor who is so good in everything his does, in all kinds of roles, that he blends perfectly into each film he acts in. To see him finally get to take on a high profile lead role like this, and to do exactly what I expected him to do, knock it out of the fucking park, is thrilling. His performance of Rustin is bold and filled with bravado. It is sensitive and subtle. It is complex and consistent. It is the sort of performance that should win awards.

Wolfe and Domingo have crafted a gorgeous and engrossing portrait of a man who was too much for his country, too much for the movement he gave his life to, too much for his racial community and too much for his sexual community. Rustin was an out man at a time when few men were out and few allies could be outwardly supportive. Rustin is dripping with the consequences of that world and its desperation for change that only people like Rustin could bring. His lack of shame is inspiring, not even just for his era, but for our current times as well. As anyone who has lived on the intersections of marginalizations knows, certain voices are often pushed to the back of history. Rustin is a chance to correct some of that. 

Rustin centres the story of its subject around his work behind making the March on Washington happen. As with so much of history, what we now view as important and virtuous, was fought tooth and nail at the time it happened. Rustin then plays out with an energy and tension as Rustin and his team pull off a miracle to make it happen, fighting all sorts of slings and arrows, making for excellent cinema. 

I also have to heap praise on Branford Marsalis' beautiful score that is filled from start to finish with the urgency, passion, pathos, and excitement that the film has. And the film has all of that. Both Domingo and Wolfe deserve to be at the top of the awards discussion this year. They have my vote.  

Rustin

Starring: Colman Domingo, Chris Rock, Glynn Turman, Aml Ameen, CCH Pounder, Michael Potts, Jeffrey Wright, Audra McDonald, Da'Vine Joy Randolph, Bill Irwin, Johnny Ramey, Gus Halper

Director: George C Wolfe

Writers: Julian Breece, Dustin Lance Black