The Book of Clarence (2024)

Imagine the story of Jesus but it's about a man who is not the son of God and is a con artist instead. Many may argue that's the story already... but leaving that aside, now lets find within that story the grace and redemption and resistance to empire even without the divine nature of the central figure. This is what The Book of Clarence feels like, a film that is not only imbuing one of the world's most famous stories with a culturally specific relevance, but also exploring the implications of how the story can speak to issues without inserting a need to believe in anything divine. 

Often films are sold in their promotional materials as something that is quite different than what you end up watching and The Book of Clarence is a good example of that. Advertised as a silly comedy about a contemporary of Jesus copying him for profit, The Book of Clarence ends up being very little of that and a whole lot of other things. Yes it's funny. And yes it is satire. But it ends up being something else as well, something that asks us some interesting questions and doesn't spoon-feed us easy answers. This is neither an Atheist spoof nor a Christian allegory. Samuel is playing with some bold themes here and taking big swings and it's fascinating to think about. 

The cast is amazing to watch with Stanfield especially doing incredible work. He has always been incredibly charismatic on screen and he has the presence to pull this role off. He balances the humour along with a great deal of quite effective pathos. Without this it would be hard to see Samuel pulling this off entirely. You need to get onboard with Clarence and Stanfield makes that very persuasive.

The film is tonally a bit mixed in ways that don't always work smoothly and there are moments that are less successful than others. But overall The Book of Clarence is quite effective and entertaining. But even more than that it offers a lot to contemplate, which makes it far more interesting in my book. 

The Book of Clarence

Starring: LaKeith Stanfield, Omar Sy, Anna Diop, RJ Cyler, David, Oyelowo, Michael Ward, Alfie Woodard, Teyana Taylor, Marianne Jean-Baptiste, James McAvoy, Benedict Cumberbatch, Nicholas Pinnock

Writer/Director: Jaymes Samuel