This isn't quite there, but it's almost there, and I think it's there in the ways that matter. Charles Burnett has an enduring taste and eye for texture. I can't think of a shot in this that doesn't have some wrinkle, some grate or pattern that stands out from the smoothness elsewhere in the frame and lends the film a roughness far more sensuous and suggestive than your usual "grit." You can't teach that. The pacing seems a little haphazard, but not where it most counts, and his eye for detail and space is exquisite enough reason to get over it. Did he ever try his hand at outright nonfiction? I find myself increasingly curious about Burnett's seemingly documentary, microscopic…

Pierce is, for a time, wholly likable. A sardonic man in a part of Los Angeles that's wrecked by drugs, violence, unemployment, economic hardship, and incarceration. His tensions with his upwardly mobile brother's rich fiancée seem to be an extension of his impatience with the general injustices of poverty he sees all around him.

But then we see the kind of socially violent toll this environment takes on the ethos of its youth when Pierce’s friendship with a dude named Soldier ends up making Pierce complicit in the coerced sexual intimidation and harassment of a woman.

Suddenly his ethical posturing against the rich and the other forces that strain his neighborhood ring hollow and Pierce is likable no more. From…

as someone whose family life has become turbulent in the last few months, i deeply relate to pierce and the monstrous choice of having to choose between the overwhelming wishes of your family/feeling their bitterness and despair when begging you to go along with their way or the need to fulfill a personal responsibility or do the thing that benefits your health and well-being, not theirs. the ending of this fucking destroyed me beyond words, i knew what was coming, i felt the anxiety raging in my chest but i was powerless to stop it, after all the footage has been filmed, time has concluded these events. it feels like what my life was like a few months ago and…

I was prepared to tout this film's visual style, noting how perspective is used to reveal the city and make even the decay look vivid. I wanted to talk about how when Pierce and his father wrestle, it's just incomprehensible, this awkward, jagged conflict that has no purpose except to create this off-kilter sense of rambunctiousness in the characters. I wanted to discuss perhaps the scathing meaning of the line Austin cites, "eat like white people tonight," and how even though I've no idea what that indicates about the food in specific terms, it conveys a sense of separation, emphasizing how otherly people see each other. I wanted to mention how good this movie was and so much more, but…

Far from the greatest film ever made, but it could very well be my favorite. A tragicomedy about a man stuck between various moral and social dilemmas is the perfect catalyst for a film showcasing the class struggle of black working America. There's something truly special about the way Burnett uses Bressonian precision to subtly weave in politics: notice how while a father and son playfully wrestle Burnett feels the need to remind us that people are looking for work. It's little moments like this, in which comedy is interrupted by reality, that make the film as powerful as it is. It's also worth noting that we only see the American flag on two occasions: first after a failed robbery,…

I'd seen Charles Burnett's two most celebrated L.A. Rebellion films, Killer of Sheep and To Sleep with Anger, but this year I'm going to attempt a few of his deeper cuts. Like Sheep (but not Anger), My Brother's Wedding uses non-professional actors. It has a very neighborhood movie feel to it, but Burnett has bigger issues on his mind. The titular wedding is between a scholarly man and his legacy rich wife-to-be, something that rubs the central character the run way because he still works at his parent's neighborhood dry cleaner. His best friend has just gotten out of jail and he provides more excuses for his friend than for his brother who's done well and is marrying up into…

Authentic depiction of inertia disguised within an ostensibly mundane quasi-hangout film. The actor who plays Pierce, Everett Silas, is really good at just playing a real person - a hard thing to do - but also at capturing someone who ostensibly holds a lot of moral stances - the dinner with the family comes to mind - but that’s as far as his righteousness goes, just complaining about it. Burnett said the character had not “developed beyond the embryonic stage, socially. He has a distinct romantic notion about life in the ghetto and yet, in spite of his naive sensitivity, he is given the task of being his brother's keeper; he feels rather than sees, and as a consequence his…

FILM #5 OF BLACK HISTORY MONTH 2021

Charles Burnett deserves a larger audience, because there’s no director quite like him. Here, he presents some of the most distinct portraits of black life that I’ve seen in any film.  

Throughout My Brother’s Wedding, he creates a very unique impression of LA. It feels like its own pocket of reality, very different from the sunshine and beaches that we usually think of first. South Central is distinct, and his take feels intimate and personal. It’s a lot like non-fiction, and many of the choices, big and small, come off as intentional. The narrative is direct and meditative, creating a static feeling throughout. I generally find continuous still shots to be lifeless,…