Saturday, September 7, 2024

Pariah (2011)

IMDb plot summary: A Brooklyn teenager juggles conflicting identities and risks friendship, heartbreak and family in a desperate search for sexual expression.
Directed by Dee Rees. Starring Adepero Oduye, Kim Wayans, and Aasha Davis.

Pariah tells the story of a lesbian teenager who is not out to her parents and is exploring her identity with the help of two friends, one butch lesbian her mother disapproves of, and the friend her mother pushes her toward who turns out to have a lot in common with her. Lee is such a great character, alternately confident and terrified, as we often all are as teens. I was going to say her relationship with her father was the most interesting to me, but genuinely each of the four key relationships she has in her story are compelling and show different sides of her identity as she figures out who she is and how to be that authentically. These characters are complex and looking to understand their world as it is, and seeing how each of them influences and is influenced by our lead character is great. It's a thoughtful, moving watch that I'd definitely recommend.

How it entered my Flickchart:
Pariah > Le voyage au Groenland
Pariah < Woman in the Dunes
Pariah > The Impossible
Pariah > Corrina, Corrina
Pariah > Nina Wu
Pariah > Minority Report
Pariah > Suburbia
Pariah > The Nice Guys
Pariah < The Menu
Pariah > H.M.S. Defiant
Pariah < Tower
Pariah < Tremors
Final spot: #1001 out of 3960, or 75%.

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