Bayard Rustin is a name that every American should know, garnering the same level of awareness as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks in the classroom.
As a gay African American activist and organizer, Rustin faced even more unimaginable bigotry than his peers as he set about organizing the unparalleled demonstration that was the 1963 March on Washington.
Actor Colman Domingo delivers an Oscar-caliber performance as Rustin, collaborating once again with DGA and Tony award winning director George C. Wolfe. The two previously collaborated on 2020’s “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” which was a criminally underrated Netflix film.
“Rustin” succeeds when it showcases its hero’s personal life, that of a man simply trying to exist in a time where he wasn’t wanted. Domingo disappears in this characters, from the mannerisms to the witty lines aimed at his lovers or in many cases his detractors.
Outside of the well-written role of Rustin, writers Julian Breece and Dustin Lance Black fail to elevate the material to the same level. The script follows a conventional formula in many ways, and scenes lack the electricity or authenticity that you feel when Domingo is exploring his sexuality or specifically, when Domingo is visiting Dr. King’s family before Dr. King doctor returns home.
The production design and staging of several scenes keeps the audience at a distance, and unfortunately the moments that this film hopes to be the most impactful feel the most manufactured and fabricated…. unearned in reality.
Domingo is incredibly charming in this role, and when he puts on a record he spins his charming words at the same rotational speed as the vinyl on the record player… he draws you into the film to the point where you feel as if you’re in the room with him.
The exact opposite feeling is summoned when watching scenes with Chris Rock’s Roy Wilkins, the NAACP Executive Secretary during the March. Rock can’t help but break any hint of reality within the scenes that he inhabits.
Nothing about Rock’s performance feels authentic to the 1960s setting or the details available regarding the real life Roy Wilkins. In contrast, Aml Ameen’s work as Dr. King proves much more tethered to the setting and on par with Domingo’s performance as Rustin. These two have real chemistry on screen and it’s a shame that doesn’t translate across the entire cast.
Wolfe’s scene construction in Rustin is vapid more often than not, with nothing matching the raw power of the film’s opening montage featuring six-year-old Ruby Bridges being chaperoned by U.S. marshals to a desegregated elementary school, or high school student Elizabeth Eckford being jeered upon as she enters her building as one of the only African American students.
The March on Washington is a moderately fulfilling finale, aided heavily by the earnest score of Branford Marsalis that carries many moments in this film.
However, you can’t help but feel that the conclusion should have had twice the impact that it manifests. Many of the film’s scenes feel stand alone in nature, not building upon each other in a meaningful way. The scenes feel like Lego blocks of various color building one on top of the next, trading two scenes that advance the civil rights narrative and then one to check in on Rustin’s personal life.
Despite Domingo’s Oscar worthy performance, which will likely be one of two Oscar nominations headed Rustin‘s way, the film falls to reach the peaks that its predecessors (like Selma) achieved. That is not to say there isn’t a great value in sharing the film, as more Americans should know of the work done by Bayard Rustin.
Letter Grade: C+