Passing (2021)

Director: Rebecca Hall. Cast: Tessa Thompson, Ruth Negga, André Holland, Bill Camp, Alexander Skarsgård. 98 min. Drama.

• Per IMDb: The term "passing" refers to the practice of members of minority or oppressed races, religions, ethnic groups, etc., pretending to be white (or otherwise members of the majority culture) to escape prejudice.
• In Rebecca Hall's debut directing feature based on a novel written a hundred years ago, Tessa Thompson and Ruth Negga represent two sides of the above spectrum: one sticking with her Black identity regardless of the injustices that come with it and regardless of how enticing the other side may be, and the other crossing over to the "dark" side by appearing white, enjoying the luxuries of the majority, while losing her own identity along the way. 
• The movie becomes a metaphor for all such passings, even including those who migrate from homelands where they're being oppressed, to more powerful countries (who may be the the root cause of their oppression), to assimilate and "look like" or "sound like" the inhabitants of the new homeland. Who's in the right? The ones who stayed with their group ... or the ones who left/pretended to be something else?
• Again and again, black-and-white photography, obviously crucial here due to the content, becomes a beautiful element of the movie, just to look at.

MoGo's rating: 7/10

Your rating: Enter here!