I liked this story of a nurse who gives up medical school to be available to her jailed husband two hours away. Director/writer Ava DuVernay, whose next picture was Selma, has a talented lead in Emayatzy Corinealdi (last blogged for Miles Ahead), as intelligent and cultured Ruby. She's ably supported by Lorraine Toussaint (dozens of credits, notably the evil Yvonne "Vee" in 12 episodes of Orange Is the New Black) as her mother, Omari Hardwick (looks familiar but I can't place him) as her husband, and David Oyelowo (most recently in these pages for A United Kingdom) as her bus driver.
After this movie got several nominations and wins from the Spirit and Gotham awards as well as Best Director at Sundance, I spent some time looking for it online and forgot about it. It popped up on my Netflix feed and I watched it over a couple of days last week.
Bradford Young's (last shot Ain't Them Bodies Saints) cinematography is noteworthy and I liked the music, too. Here's a playlist of the songs plus a link to other work by composer Kathryn Bostic (scored Dear White People).
Rotten Tomatoes' critics average 88% and its audiences 65. Worth your time after you get caught up on the Oscar nominations.
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