Female Film Critics 24/375
Luce will disturb audiences well after the credits have rolled. There are so many issues being played out in the form of social acceptance and pressure, racism, entitlement and what face the truth takes. At the end of the day, we’re left with questions about the pressures one encounters simply by being a human navigating in this world that moves at warp speed.
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When Luce Edgar’s stern history teacher questions his provocative essay about West Indian radical political philosopher Frantz Fanon and, subsequently, finds a bag of illegal fireworks in his locker, Luce’s reputation is called into question. Parent-teacher confrontations, monitored by the principal, raise pertinent questions about racial identity and prejudice.
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Director Julius Onah’s Luce trades on the perplexing challenge of accurately accessing character, even in individuals known quite well and occasionally on public display. Add to that a Rashomon factor, that is, the subjective trap for everyone of their own status and personality, and the complications multiply, the film’s audience included as we second guess our own judgments.
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