Rustin

 

Rustin
Starring Colman Domingo, Aml Ameen, Glynn Turmann, Chris Rock
Directed by George C. Wolfe

The March on Washington was the defining moment for the Civil Rights Movement with the iconic "I Have a Dream" speech by the illustrious Martin Luther King, Jr., and there was a lot of behind-the-scenes drama that went into that day being what it was, to the point where it almost never happened in the first place. To think about what would be now if that day never happened is unthinkable, as it served as the catalyst for the end of racial discrimination in America. While the event is rightfully synonymous with King, there were countless unsung heroes who went against the odds to make it happen, most notably the civil rights activist Bayard Rustin, who not just had to battle racial prejudices, but in a time where homosexuality was all but outlawed, he had even higher hurdles to climb to achieve his dream.

Baynard Rustin (Colman Domingo) has spent his life serving as a civil rights activist while going against a government that not only hated him for his color, but for the people he loved. Yet he never gave up hope of making things right, and together with his longtime friend Martin Luther King Jr. (Aml Ameen), set out to form the largest non-violent protest in American history by drawing in over 100,000 African Americans to march on Washington to demand equal rights.


The Good:
Colman Domingo has had a great year in cinema, and "Rustin" is his crowning achievement, a role that's already garnered him a Golden Globe and Critics' Choice Award nomination, with Oscars knocking on his door. It's no surprise because he holds this narrative together, supplying a fully flushed out character that's more than just a Wikipedia search but a man who struggled with the injustices he faced in his past not just as an African American, but a homosexual as well. Domingo makes care to not turn Rustin into a caricature or overly melodramatic but grounds him in a melancholic reality that shows through his pained eyes even as he's cracking jokes and making humorous antidotes about the situation around him. When it's time to get down and dirty, Domingo gives Rustin a sense of urgency and vitality that leaps off the screen and gives you a newfound appreciation for the man you probably never heard of until now.

The story is one we all know through our history lessons, but the events behind the scenes concerning the March on Washington was something interesting in and of itself. Obviously any act of rebellion or protest is never easy, and the events that took place to make it happen was a once-in-a-lifetime event that was spiritually ordained. You sense the tension, the pitfalls, and the cracks in the road that led to that historic moment in time, and shows the strength of will in not just Rustin, but everyone else involved in it. History isn't made by weak people, and there's no weak people in the making of this event.


The Bad:
At times the film delves into typical biopic fashion with glossed-over moments, but unlike most biopics it doesn't happen often enough to take me away from the story.


The Summary:
By bringing the life of Rustin to the big (or in this case, Netflix) screen, Colman Domingo gives a career-best performance worthy of recognition and gives a newfound appreciation for the man and everything he endured to make his own dream come true.


The Score: A