Worth: $11.99
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Cast:
Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, Jon Bernthal, Niecy Nash, Vera Farmiga, Finn Wittrock, Emily Yancy, Victoria Pedretti, Isha Carlos Blaaker
Intro:
… a fascinating work of docufiction, albeit not always for the reasons it intends.
Caste: The Origins Of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson is an intense sociological work. Using the Indian caste system as its springboard, it’s an attempt to create a kind of unified field theory to cover and explain all forms of violent dehumanisation across the world, from institutional racism in the United States to the ethnic cleansing of Nazi Germany, that goes deeper than specific divisions of race or economic class. While there’s a larger debate to be had about its viability as a framework, it’s still a valuable addition to the conversation. It is also a work that, to turn into a documentary, would be quite the ambitious undertaking, considering just how much geopolitical history it covers. Which is why what writer/director Ava DuVernay (Selma) decided to do with it is both commendable and somewhat misguided.
DuVernay presents the collation of the research that went into the source material as the film’s main narrative, following Wilkerson (here played by Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor) as she grapples with personal tragedy as well as trying to codify societal tragedy in her writing. DuVernay along with DP Matthew J. Lloyd and editor Spencer Averick make some big swings with their visualisation of this process, intertwining her story with those of Nazi dissenter August Landmesser, Harvard scholars Allison and Elizabeth Davis of Deep South: A Social Anthropological Study Of Caste And Class, and Dr. B. R. Ambedkar, who championed the rights of those at the bottom of the Indian caste system (Dalit, or ‘untouchable’).
The decision to adapt this as a biopic (albeit an unconventional one), as opposed to a documentary, makes sense as far as making the density of the original text palatable for a mainstream audience. Anchored by Ellis-Taylor’s performance, there’s genuine emotional catharsis through the film’s dramatisation of these events. But unfortunately, the whole ends up suffering because it’s trying to serve two masters: the informative objectivity of a documentary, and the artistic visualisation of a biopic. The plethora of cultural talking points (flawed as some of them are, like the oversimplification regarding the ethnicity of Jews) can feel too expansive for the more intimate dramatic moments shown, while the dramatisation of real-world events and hierarchies can feel trivial or even manipulative next to the reality of what’s being discussed. In essence, the attempt to simplify the text manages to overcomplicate it even further.
Origin will get audiences thinking about the overlap between different cultures’ oppressiveness (often by cribbing notes from each other), and then make them question why they’re seeing Nick Offerman in a MAGA cap. It will shine a light on historical moments that help to show why the fight against inequality and unjust hierarchies is a collective effort, and then bring up potential pushback against the proffered framework linking them together only to handwave it away. To say nothing of how it opens with a Trayvon Martin re-enactment, a starting point for Wilkerson’s global journey that, at best, makes him into a collective abstraction akin to ‘Norma Jeane’ in Blonde and, at worst, a retroactive fridging victim; an effect that lingers over the other deaths in Wilkerson’s life as shown, unfortunately.
Ava DuVernay’s film is a fascinating work of docufiction, albeit not always for the reasons it intends. It is just as easy to admire it for its technical and thematic ambition as it is to go screw-faced at how badly, and how frequently, it falls short. The performed dramatics are solid and delivered by a great cast, and the information delivered raises worthwhile questions, but they both end up losing air to breathe because they’ve been squeezed into the same box together. It’s the kind of film that, at the very least, should inspire interesting post-viewing conversation.
