Go Tell It on the Mountain

Well told. narrative of the black experience in the US. Excellent acting by Paul Winfield and Olivia Stone.

James Baldwin's wanderjahr about the journey from the rural south to New York City hits the big screen, with a fine cast and subtle story. Is there actually anything going on except for people living their lives as best as they can? It's only when it's all over and you think about it that it makes sense as a tale. This is is contrast to a lot of blockbusters that seem fine until you get home, take off your shoes, go to the refrigerator and open a beer, and then it hits you: it was all nonsense.

A great cast helps, and here's one with Paul Winfield, Olivia Cole, Rosalind Cash, Giancarlo Esposito, Ruby Dee, Alfre Woodard... well, there are more, they're all good, and they have some telling characters to inhabit. It's not an easy movie to watch, because, as I said, there's no simple plot line, but it is tremendously rewarding if you take the trouble.

Not only is it a terrific and creative adaptation of Baldwin's great book. It is just a very very moving film.

One review says you need to be a Christian to appreciate the movie. I'm not a Christian and I appreciate it greatly. It speaks to fundamental aspects of being human: parent-child relationships, the burden of the past on the present, the struggle to find our selves amid all the many demands placed on us by others. And yes, the place of spirituality and transcendence in all that.

It's also a crazy "who's who" of contemporary African-American actors well before they became household faces and names.

*Watch this movie.* You'll be glad you did.