Post by StevePulaski on Jul 17, 2018 21:10:03 GMT -5
Pass Over (2018)
Directed by: Spike Lee and Dayna Taymor
Directed by: Spike Lee and Dayna Taymor
Julian Parker stands over Jon Michael Hill in Pass Over.
Rating: ★★★
When Antoinette Nwandu's Pass Over had its limited run at the iconic Steppenwolf Theatre in Chicago last summer, no one thought the play would go on to have a life after its month-long engagement thanks to online streaming. The play's ambition and topical commentary attracted the attention of director Spike Lee, who collaborated with stage-director Dayna Taymor, shot the play in secret, had it sent to editor Hye Mee Na, and struck a deal with Amazon to have it easily accessible to all.
The move itself has attracted its share of attention with a plethora of gatekeepers crying wolf on the move insofar that shooting stage performances to be edited and reworked for cinema is its own kind of atrocity. I see no issue with it. Plays are exclusive almost to a fault, significantly less viewable for those sometimes a part of the demographic who would benefit the most from seeing them. This is a way to democratize their access, especially when the final product, like Pass Over, is so artfully captured and edited.
More on the matter of the product's quality. Pass Over is an engrossing play, film, or however you wish to bill it (I'll use "film" for convenience and given the form in which I viewed it). A brilliant and provocative reimagining of Samuel Beckett's famous Waiting for Godot, Nwandu's work profiles two young black adults whose lives remain physically and emblematically stagnant as they spend a long, lonely night on a dangerous Chicago street corner — the famous Dr. Martin Luther King Drive and 64th Street, to be exact, which lies in the Parkway Gardens neighborhood. The men are Moses (Jon Michael Hill), an aggressive soul despite his name, and Kitch (Julian Parker), a humbler, more reserved man, and both spend their evening exchanging sweet nothings about what the future has in store for them. They often perform before themselves, exaggerating lives of luxury by pretending to make calls to hotel room services requesting caviar and bitches while backpatting one another and themselves to assure that this life is attainable. This life of excess might indeed be attainable if the men "pass over," as they so often say, and get off the street corner that holds nothing for them. But every time they seek to advance, they are stopped either by the sound of gunshots, the presence of a wayward white drifter (Ryan Hallahan), a prejudiced police officer (Blake DeLong), or their more-than-obvious unease with leaving behind all that they've known.
In theater, timing is everything, and in Pass Over, Hill and Parker propel themselves to extraordinary heights as performers thanks to mastering the essence of how to say something and when exactly to say it. They fling words at one another as if swinging damp towels wound into rat-tails, only becoming more energized as they add role-playing, speedy quips, and colloquial wit into the picture. The timing is so perfect that when Moses' antics take a turn for the mean-spirited or accusatory, it draws attention to the somber side of Kitch's character, the likes of which Parker executes with great poise for such a young actor. As the roles grow more emotionally challenging due to the turns the play takes, Hill and Parker's fluidity and navigation of their individuals, both separately and in terms of their relationship to the other man, is impeccable.
Spike Lee was the perfect choice to direct this project for the screen. I was skeptical of how he'd be able to convey so much given theater's famous minimalism as well as the limitations of the set and set-design. He marvelously makes maximum use of space and blocking; he had to have filmed during multiple performances to get some of the multi-angle shots or spare footage for Hye Mee Na to piece together in order to produce great instances of repetition. I could very well be underestimating the wonders of camera placement and Lee's own directorial vision, but I'd be astounded to realize this was shot all in one evening.
If there are any shortcomings in Nwandu's words, it's that they trespass a little too closely into didactic sermonizing during the final minutes, robbing the play of the understated impressionism and commonality of the characters and the scene that exists so powerfully from the beginning onward. Yet Pass Over is obviously trying to bring a problem — many, in fact — into the foreground, a problem that so many people unnervingly fail to recognize or are comfortable pretending doesn't exist. The fact that Nwandu and Taymor are willing to texture the play with so many strong beats that will undoubtedly resonate with young black teenagers, whose personalities and stories are often omitted from conventional theater, is a great move that ceaselessly shines through the entire play.
Pass Over is a deeply sad effort, pulling double the weight of a debut from a new voice while calling back to one of theater's most timeless works. Through confident writing and with the help of some exceptional young talent, Nwandu and Taymor emphasize the tragic subtext and aura of hopelessness in Waiting for Godot with the smothering weight of systemic racism and ongoing police brutality. The end result should rightfully be experienced by people, even long after the curtain has fallen.
Starring: Jon Michael Hill, Julian Parker, Ryan Hallahan, and Blake DeLong. Directed by: Spike Lee and Dayna Taymor.