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If you watch just one movie I review this year, I recommend this one. Unless you're into horror, in which case I recommend adding His House and Us - sorry, they're all so fantastic that I can't choose between them.
It's about three generations of Black women with psychic powers in a world that's been hit by an apocalypse which is not plague, and yet will seem familiar in that life has been both profoundly affected, and is still ordinary; people still listen to music, and do chores, and get in fights with their moms. Fast Color is simultaneously thoughtful science fiction, a deeply satisfying low-key superpower movie with very likable characters, and a moving family drama about generational trauma and healing. The acting is fantastic, it's beautiful to look at, and it will heal your heart.
The story begins when Ruth (Gugu Mbatha-Raw, pictured in my icon) arrives in a motel with a look in her eyes like hell's on her heels. She hurriedly checks in after a brief negotiation over water, which establishes two things: this isn't quite our world, but a near-future one in which a severe drought has been going on long enough for everyone to get used to dealing with it, and that she is both desperate and broke. Once she's in her room, we learn that she has out-of-control psychic powers, and that she's not just fleeing from people who want to capture her, but from herself and her past.
The past, of course, always finds you. After some adventures which I won't spoil, she ends up back in her ancestral home, with her own mother Bo (Lorraine Toussaint) and her daughter Lila (Saniyya Sidney, of the late lamented (if only by me) The Passage), who she never knew. All three of them have powers, which are of a sort I've never quite seen before in fiction. The way they're filmed is absolutely beautiful, very original, and yet satisfyingly familiar in that they have ALL my favorite tropes about psychic powers. This would be a great fandom for psychic power-related hurt-comfort, for instance.
One of my favorite subgenres is people with superpowers just living their lives; lighting fires with a flick of their fingers to cook their lunch, trying to raise their kids when their kids are telekinetic and the wider world hates and fears them, airing family grievances over the dinner table until it gets so heated that a plate explodes. X-Men comics were great for having bits and stories like that in the downtime between saving the world. And now I have an entire movie about it. There's a big-picture aspect as well, but even in the big action sequences, it's still all about character and community and relationships, not explosions.
I can't recommend this highly enough. You can find it on Amazon Prime and Hulu.
I saw it too late to request it for Yuletide myself, but a couple other people did. Hopefully some fic will appear.
Fast Color
It's about three generations of Black women with psychic powers in a world that's been hit by an apocalypse which is not plague, and yet will seem familiar in that life has been both profoundly affected, and is still ordinary; people still listen to music, and do chores, and get in fights with their moms. Fast Color is simultaneously thoughtful science fiction, a deeply satisfying low-key superpower movie with very likable characters, and a moving family drama about generational trauma and healing. The acting is fantastic, it's beautiful to look at, and it will heal your heart.
The story begins when Ruth (Gugu Mbatha-Raw, pictured in my icon) arrives in a motel with a look in her eyes like hell's on her heels. She hurriedly checks in after a brief negotiation over water, which establishes two things: this isn't quite our world, but a near-future one in which a severe drought has been going on long enough for everyone to get used to dealing with it, and that she is both desperate and broke. Once she's in her room, we learn that she has out-of-control psychic powers, and that she's not just fleeing from people who want to capture her, but from herself and her past.
The past, of course, always finds you. After some adventures which I won't spoil, she ends up back in her ancestral home, with her own mother Bo (Lorraine Toussaint) and her daughter Lila (Saniyya Sidney, of the late lamented (if only by me) The Passage), who she never knew. All three of them have powers, which are of a sort I've never quite seen before in fiction. The way they're filmed is absolutely beautiful, very original, and yet satisfyingly familiar in that they have ALL my favorite tropes about psychic powers. This would be a great fandom for psychic power-related hurt-comfort, for instance.
One of my favorite subgenres is people with superpowers just living their lives; lighting fires with a flick of their fingers to cook their lunch, trying to raise their kids when their kids are telekinetic and the wider world hates and fears them, airing family grievances over the dinner table until it gets so heated that a plate explodes. X-Men comics were great for having bits and stories like that in the downtime between saving the world. And now I have an entire movie about it. There's a big-picture aspect as well, but even in the big action sequences, it's still all about character and community and relationships, not explosions.
I can't recommend this highly enough. You can find it on Amazon Prime and Hulu.
I saw it too late to request it for Yuletide myself, but a couple other people did. Hopefully some fic will appear.
Fast Color
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Not in the UK you can't. *growling*
I know because I really really want to see it. I may have to crack and get it on DVD.
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Get it on DVD. It's absolutely worth it.
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UK Netflix has it, if that helps.
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Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay.
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Yes: it's the last film reviewed here. I was punchy but I loved it.
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You're welcome! (It was mid-February; the world was already turning weird.) Midnight Special and Fast Color were my favorite movies of that festival and actually make a fascinating double feature of differently very American approaches to life with family with superpowers.
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Have you seen Raising Dion? That's a major thread in it.
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I do not watch horror. It actually gives me nightmares and has since I was a child. Hell, Life Boat gave me nightmares, and a lifetime phobia of the ocean!
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I hope you get fic!
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As does Fast Color, there are just oceans and worlds in the history of that movie. I stumbled on it and it's just brilliant.
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