You can see why it’s taken nearly a century for someone to film Nella Larsen’s landmark 1929 novel about a black woman “passing” as white to get ahead in society: the subject is thorny, and few filmmakers are equipped to handle it with the delicacy and empathy it needs. Few would have guessed that biracial British actress Rebecca Hall would be exactly that filmmaker, but this is one of the most ambitious and fully formed directorial debuts in recent memory, matching pristinely controlled filmmaking to a rigorous, emotionally fullblooded interpretation of Larsen’s text. Tessa Thompson, never better, is Irene, a wife and mother contentedly living in a predominantly black neighbourhood of New York City; a surprise reunion with childhood friend Clare (an astonishing Ruth Negga), now living as a wealthy white woman, unlocks complex tensions and yearnings in both. You’ll leave with a head full of questions and a heart full of feeling. Out now
5/5