Alma's Rainbow

This film is an interesting character study of an inhibited, uptight single mother, her wild sister, and her rebellious, coming-of-age daughter. It didn't earn a higher rating than 7 because some of the scenes and dialogues are cliches, but it's definitely worth a watch for its unconventional African-American middle-class setting. One of the themes is that mothers can learn as much from their daughters as vice versa.

Alma Gold runs a neighbourhood beauty parlor from her home, and concentrates on chivvying along her staff and her teenage daughter Rainbow. Alma is a little serious, maybe even a stickler. Enter Alma's sister Ruby, a minor yet glorious celebrity who made her name playing Josephine Baker in a biographical play, but is struggling to find the work she needs to fund her extravagant lifestyle. Mizan Kirby has an absolute ball as the wild and high maintenance Ruby who quickly puts stars in the eyes of her niece, and attempts to shake up Alma's life. They settle into being a quirky and squabbling family unit.

What is very nice is that the movie a gentle one where conflict levels never rise to a level that might cause unease to the viewer. The set is mostly Alma's house, which is covered in dark wood panelling, plants, sumptuous and exotic paintings that pull you in, feather boas, and antiques, it's a decadent haven. It's a movie that focusses on the life of three Black women (ok one of them is a teenager who thinks she is a woman), their hopes, dreams, and worries, and we see how the women talk when they're with other women and that's pretty rare for the cinema. The big music, big dancing and big laughs will stay with me (Rainbow's lusty dreams were the funniest). It was a great benefit to see it on the big screen, so I could almost feel like I was sat in Alma's house.

Alma's owns a beauty salon, which is located in the first floor of her brownstone. Alma has to come to terms with her past as she struggles to keep her daughter from making the same mistake, she made some years ago. Her daughter, Rainbow, struggles with puberty (some may find it hard to believe, however, there are young girls that are that well developed in their early teens).

In the midst of Rainbow's struggle with puberty and it's social implications, Ruby, Alma's sister shows up unannounced. Wild and free Ruby changes both Alma and Rainbow as she encourages Alma to loosen up and Rainbow to follow her dreams. It is a nice movie.

This second feature from independent film maker Ayoka Chenzira, despite its style being a bit too redolent of a watered down "Do The Right Thing", sometimes amateurish acting, and a tendency to get silly at inappropriate times (like the aunt's graveside speech and the love making scene with Alma and her boyfriend), ultimately won me over. I found that I cared about the three main characters and their travails and I admired how writer/director Chenzira was able to make me care without resorting to undue sentimentality, to cite just the most prominent trap into which coming of age films can fall. I am glad Chenzira is still directing and I hope to see more of her work. Give it a B plus.

PS...I want to live in that Brooklyn brownstone!

One not-so-little sister went to Paris to be in show business, and one stayed home in Brooklyn to run her own hair salon and raise her daughter. Now her sister from Paris is back in Brooklyn, her daughter is becoming a woman, and life has gotten very confusing.

Ayoka Chenzira's movie about how life will go on, no matter how hard you try to stop it is a mixed bag. It meets all the technical issues of a good movie, and the story is a good one. The main problem for me is Mizan Kirby as the wandering sister; I suppose she should be played a bit larger than life in the opening scenes, but it keeps up too long and is phony; she enunciates her French far too carefully, like she is in a class room, after ten years in Paris; and she does the same for the sequences in which she is in a slap-up argument with her sister, Kim Weston-Moran.

Even so, I found the movie well worth watching. There's some life in daughter Victoria Gabrielle Platt as she tries to come to terms with her adult body, despite the old ladies who brew tisanes for her, her mother's stoic advice, and her aunt's challenges. Also the secondary characters like Lee Dobson who tries to put some life into Miss Weston, and Jennifer Copeland as the salon's assistant is a warily watchful presence.