Middle of Nowhere

I'm always really happy to see films directed by African American women, period. It's so hard to get a budget, so hard to make it happen, and so few sistas writing and directing feature length narrative films, I make a point to support. When Ava DuVernay won the Best Director award 2012's Sundance Film Festival for her second feature film Middle of Nowhere, I was really overjoyed, and excited to see the film. Especially since the film covers a subject I'm very passionate about, incarceration of African American men. I was also excited to see that David Oyewolo was cast to play "Brian," as I consider him one of the greatest actors in Hollywood; the Sidney Poitier of his generation. And wow, the lead played by Emayatzy Corinealdi was a real treat to see her work, she's beautiful and has chops! Add one of the most talented up and coming Directors of Photography, Bradford Young to the equation and yooooooooo! So, I'm all the way in... and yeah... I find myself in the middle of nowhere. I want to feel more, the actors are good... and the film is kind of muted, seems to be mostly shot in natural light, lots of shadows, brooding. No commentary on prison industrial complex, this film is about relationships, in a vacuum. But I want to talk about brothers being incarcerated and an exponentially greater margin for the same crimes committed by white males, but... yeah... no, not this film. So, I got over that, and rode the film for what it is, a look at a difficult time in a woman's life, who had really invested a lot in her relationship with her incarcerated husband. You know what I dug though, we get to see folks who are living on the margins in L.A., like they don't cars and have to take the bus, folks are struggling... like in reality out there. And I really respect DuVernay for letting her characters be struggling financially, which is in itself actually revolutionary for most films that have to do with Black characters in Hollywood these days... it's like it's daring to not be corporate lawyers, athletes, marketing tycoons or whatever. Yeah, I want to see a story about a bus driver, an nurse and an incarcerated brother, here played by Omari Hardwick. So why do I feel, like I want to like this film more than I actually did when I left the theater. Is it because it didn't offer a Hollywood ending for me? Nooooo, that can't be it!!!! Definitely worth seeing, but wasn't really the film I had got so hyped to see.

I enjoyed this movie. The characters were complex and true to life. You can see yourself, your family, friends, etc. In each character. We are complicated and have many layers.

Omari Hardwick is in prison on a ten-year sentence. Wife Emayatzy Corinealdi tells him he's going to behave, and get out in five years. He reluctantly agrees. Yet while he's in prison, she's in a prison of her own outside, stuck with trying to pay the bills for lawyers, fighting with her mother, riding the late-night bus from work to home. It comes to a head at his parole hearing, where she hears details of some of the things he has been doing, and is devastated.

There have been a lot of movies about men (and women) in prison, but few, if any about what the writer-director of this movie, Ava DuVernay, calls the "invisible prisoners." Miss Corinealdi is excellent in a fully written role, stuck, conflicted, and fumbling. With Lorraine Toussaint and David Oyelowo

It's possible to tell a story about the so-called negative aspects of a culture without belittling the group or individuals involved. This is something directors, particularly of African descent, seem to be lacking, imo. In other words, if there's no brutality depicted , then it's "not capturing the rawness of reality" ...Ms DuVernay defies this false notion and I've noticed she has been stealthily doing so for quite a while now. I would be proud to call her my daughter, sister, or partner if I had such a relationship with her. unfortunately, I'll just have to settle for a proud, admiring fan. The lesson here: It's all about humanizing the characters, not trashing their existence, Well done!.

Middle of Nowhere ***1/2 (2012) 1hr. 41 min.

Ava Duvernay is one of a new exciting filmmakers in independent cinema, whose stories about relationships about black Americans and issues surrounding their spouses, parents, siblings, etc. and how complicated and loyal black women can be when it comes to black men. Some black women go through enormous sacrifices of personal happiness within themselves and in this film, shows how loyalty can lead to question one's purpose on earth, in which, that very dedication is tested, when she meets a man one day and she questions that very attachment to her significant other.

The story is about a young black woman, a registered nurse named Ruby (Emayatzy Corinealdi) who lives with her sister a waitress named Rosie (Edwina Findley Dickerson) and her young son. Ruby is paying for an attorney to represent a case involving Ruby's husband Derek (Omari Hardwick) who has been in jail for 4 years on a weapons charge. She loves him and is focused on having the life they planned before he was incarcerated when he is released from jail. When the parole hearing occurs, with Ruby being the attentive dutiful wife-- hears a bombshell in the courtroom. Ruby questions her commitment to the marriage, which leads to a budding romance with a Bus driver Brian (David Oyelowo). Brian knows that she is married but senses tension within the marriage by Ruby's nonverbal behavior and seeing a ring that appears on her left finger to be a wedding ring. Ruby then has to decide to either continue with her marriage to Derek or begin another romance with a new suitor. Ruby also has to deal with the relationship with her mother and her disappointment of her daughter's lifestyles choices.

The film is beautifully written by Ava Duvernay the dialogue is very poetic and introspective of the inner dialogue she gives Ruby, who is a woman who loves her husband, but has to deal with one obstacle after another because of her husband irresponsible behavior. Ruby represents a lot of black women who are dedicated spouses who put with a lot of nonsense of their boyfriends or husbands, because of the racist society that we live in. Many black women feel the black man in America today, get such a raw deal, by the systematic racism that exists in America. Despite years of laws that should have made discrimination less and less problematic, which has unfortunately, had limited effectiveness to curb racism in large numbers.

All the performances are quite good and Troussaint has great moment when she's at the dinner table, at her daughters house, she is disappointed with one daughter's choice of profession and an ex- boyfriend who is an absentee father and Rosie, not wanting Mother Ruth to spend time with her grandson and the other daughter Ruby, who is too loyal to a man who is not worthy of her daughter. "Middle of Nowhere" is a fine second feature and gives Duvernay the opportunity to make more intellectual and thoughtful movies, about people in complicated relationships and situations. I predict Duvernay will make more thought provoking films in the future years to come.