Pariah

February 2012

 

PariahWritten & Directed by Dee Rees. Starring: Adepero Oduye, Pernell Walker, Aasha Davis, Charles Parnell, Sahra Mellesse, and Kim Wayans. USA, 2011, 86 min.

Alike (Adepero Oduye) is a 17 year old closeted stud who lives with her parents and sister in Brooklyn. Following the steps of her best friend Laura – a high school dropout stud played by Pernell Walker –, chronically shy Alike goes out to strip clubs and lesbian bars trying her luck with the ladies without much success.

Alike’s family is far from picture perfect. Her father (Charles Parnell) is a well known and respected detective who either doesn’t care about his daughter’s sexual orientation or is too busy having an affair to notice it. Kim Wayans nails her role as Alike’s ultra religious and overbearing mother who, unable to control her husband’s comings and goings, needs to be in charge of the way her daughters dress and conduct themselves. Appearances are important for Alike’s mother and she would love it if her oldest daughter was more feminine. She doesn’t like that her husband doesn’t seem to notice that their oldest daughter is “turning into a man” and takes things into her own hands arranging for her daughter to spend more time with the daughter of a fellow parishioner, Bina (Aasha Davis), more of the girly girl she’d like to have for a daughter, thinking she will be a good influence and in an effort to break Alike’s friendship with Laura.

Alike and Laura’s friendship will be tested but not because of the reasons Alike’s mother would love. Used to leaving her house and changing her clothes right before entering class, Alike is not happy with having to walk to school with Bina. At first they walk together without talking to each other. Having been grounded by her mother, Alike’s only allowed activity on Saturday nights is going to Bina’s house. Soon they discover they have similar musical tastes and start spending more time together without Alike’s mother having to force it. Whereas Laura seems to only like hustling and partying, Bina encourages Alike’s writing and her artistic side which causes a rift between the two friends. Bina soon seduces Alike, slowly but sure of what she is doing, leading her on only to drop a casual “don’t tell anyone” the morning after they have sex (which was Alike’s first time). Heartbroken, Alike runs to Laura’s apartment but she finds her playing poker with other studs and only receives a verbal beating from her friend.

Fast forward to that night or a couple of days later when Alike’s mother has finally had enough of her husband’s never being home and not eating what she cooks for him. Alike tells her sister to lock herself in her bedroom and deliberately comes out to her parents to break up their fight. Her mother loses it and viciously beats Alike cutting her cheek with her ring and knocking her to the floor. The father separates them and Alike temporarily moves in with Laura with whom she has somehow patched things up. Her heartbreak over Bina’s calculated coldness and the drama at home inspires her to reach deeper and keep writing which ultimately allows her to graduate early and accept a scholarship at UC-Berkeley.

Going into the theater I was afraid Pariah would be a dark, depressing, coming-of-age movie a la Precious but with a lesbian protagonist. The title itself sets a dramatic tone that contrasts with the movie’s refreshingly optimistic message. Despite tear-jerking scenes like when Laura goes to her mother’s house to show her she got her GED, Alike’s beating at her mother’s hands or their final goodbye (the mother can’t tell her she loves her, she can only hold her Bible tightly while telling Alike she will be praying for her), there is humor in this movie (liquor store scene, stud putting straight male in his place with a very clever phrase about his wife) and it ends on a positive note. Alike has been accepted in a summer program in San Francisco and will start going to College right after the summer. She has options. She is choosing, not running.

 

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