Rustin (2023)

We also loved this terrific bio-pic of Bayard Rustin (Bayard-pic?), in which Colman Domingo kills it as (and is Oscar-nominated for) the closeted yet confidently flamboyant civil rights activist who helped organize Martin Luther King's 1963 March on Washington. The large cast includes Aml Ameen as MLK, Glynn Turman as A. Philip Randolph, Chris Rock as Roy Wilkins, CCH Pounder as Dr. Ann Hedgeman, Audra McDonald as Ella Baker, Jeffrey Wright as Adam Clayton Powell, and Da'Vine Joy Randolph as Mahalia Jackson.

George C. Wolfe directs from a screenplay by Julian Breece (who also wrote the story) and Dustin Lance Black. Breece has been working on it since 2015 with much research but an earlier iteration fell through. Wolfe and Black joined later. 

Branford Marsalis' jazzy soundtrack is playing on Apple Music as I write. There's also a wonderful playlist available of popular songs from the era played during the movie. I read that Randolph was particularly excited to play Jackson, but the soundtrack lists Tonya Boyd-Cannon as the singer of her songs.

Shout out to the makeup department heads Quintessence Patterson and Beverly Jo Pryor for Domingo's dental prosthetics.

This is the first non-documentary feature for Michelle and Barack Obama's production company Higher Ground.

Domingo was last blogged for Zola; Turman, Wolfe, and Marsalis for Ma Rainey's Black Bottom; Rock for Amsterdam; Pounder for Avatar; McDonald for Respect; Wright for American Fiction; Randolph for The Holdovers; and Black for J. Edgar after he won an Oscar for writing Milk.

Ameen is new to me despite a small part in Beyond the Lights and Boyd-Cannon apparently ranked on the TV show The Voice but you can't prove it by me. Breece makes his feature debut here. Patterson has dozens of credits in her career of twenty years and counting. Pryor has been working for thirty and her resumé includes Ali (2001), Something New (2006), The Butler, Selma, Straight Outta Compton, and Hidden Figures.

Rotten Tomatoes' critics and audiences are not protesting with their averages of 85 and 86%, respectively, though we would rate it higher. Jack and I watched it on Netflix on January 9.