Now & Then: Stay Small

We assess Ava DuVernay's first and latest films, and we start a new occasional series of pairing new releases with a film from the director's past:

SELMA (C+) - If you had told me that this was a TV movie made in 1985, I would have believed you.

This highly reverential biography of Martin Luther King in Selma, Ala., in 1965 seems stuck in amber, and comes off as dim and flat on the big screen. Ava DuVernay's would-be epic is deferential to a fault; it's like all the characters are dressed up for church on Sunday and can't let loose in a meaningful way.

I found the story suffocating. It was boring to the point that I dozed off for about 10 minutes halfway through.

This is a good example of the major pitfalls of biopics -- reducing a larger-than-life figure to two-dimensional fiction. David Oyelowa is a fine actor, as he proved in "A Most Violent Year," but here he has huge shoes -- and vocal cords -- to fill, and he is dwarfed by the challenge. Every time he took a shot at soaring oratory, it was painfully obvious that no one has the charisma that King oozed. Oyelowa doesn't have the pipes, frankly, and it's a distraction. (I refused to watch "Ali," because I lived through the Ali era and didn't need to have it fictionalized by actors playing dress-up, including Will Smith, who I can only imagine came off as a 12-year-old wearing Daddy's shoes.)

The film also suffers from a flaw similar to that in "12 Years a Slave" -- the actors playing the bad white guys get the tone all wrong and wallow in cartoon villainy. Tom Wilkinson is clueless as to how to find an entry point to playing Lyndon Johnson, and Tim Roth plays George Wallace as if he had never heard of the Alabama governor until the day before his scenes were shot.

I have to say that as far as capturing the civil rights era, Lee Daniels' "The Butler" had a much more satisfying take. The actors playing the presidents (inspired choices like Robin Williams as Eisenhower and John Cusack as Nixon) brought nuance to the roles. And Oprah Winfrey was miles better in that movie than she is in "Selma." She like other fine actors -- Wendell Pierce as Hosea Williams, Colman Domingo as Ralph Abernathy and young Lakeith Stanfield (amazing in "Short Term 12") as Jimmie Lee Jackson -- are mummified by DuVernay in her breakthrough film as an A-list director. The result is a movie that's as solemn as a museum piece.

I WILL FOLLOW (2010) (B) - As you'd expect, DuVernay's debut film is at the opposite end of the spectrum, a quiet, intimate study of life and loss.

Maye (Sallie Richardson-Whitfield) has spent the past year tending to her aunt, Amanda (Beverly Todd), a former session drummer who played out her final stages of cancer shunning western medicine. After Amanda's death, Maye is clearing out Amanda's house in Topanga Canyon. During those two days, she deals with gruff movers, a recalcitrant lover and her contentious cousin Fran (Michole White) -- Amanda's estranged daughter. Flashbacks show Maye bonding with her dignified aunt, as Maye ruminates on her own choices in career and relationships.

DuVernay takes her time with the set-up, which makes the first half drag. A confrontation midway through the film kickstarts a much strong second half.

Richardson-Whitfield has the classic beauty of Pam Grier and Beverly Johnson, but she has the chops to overcome such superficial distractions and carry the entire movie on her shoulders. White has an out-sized personality that threatens to take over the film before she reins in her energy at just the right point.

By the end, the characters are finally fleshed out, and you care about the ending. This is mature, subtle filmmaking, a genuine articulation of the black experience that feels familiar and lived-in.

BONUS TRACK
The trip-hop song that plays over the closing credits of "I Will Follow," Donn T's "Waiting":