I saw this movie after watching the first, brilliant season of the TV series it spawned, and that makes it difficult to review. Because the TV series is so brilliant, so funny, so nuanced, and so well structured, I can't help but see the movie as a dress rehearsal for what was to come. Would I have enjoyed this movie more had I seen it first? Very possibly.
The movie follows a whole bunch of characters as they deal with issues around race, with black characters ranging from revolutionaries to blend-inners and white characters ranging from supportive to racist to really, really racist.
The movie is hugely ambitious, and director Justin Simien wants to squeeze in every idea he's ever had about race into this movie. Unfortunately, the result often feels overstuffed, with too many characters and too many ideas packed into too little space.
Clearly, Simien needed a TV series. In that, he takes the same ideas and is able to fully explore each one and each character, in wonderful detail.
The movie is certainly well worth seeing, but unlike the TV series, I wouldn't call this essential viewing.
