Black Nativity (film)
Black Nativity | |
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Theatrical release poster | |
Directed by | Kasi Lemmons |
Produced by |
William Horberg T. D. Jakes Galt Niederhoffer Celine Rattray Trudie Styler |
Screenplay by | Kasi Lemmons |
Based on |
Black Nativity by Langston Hughes |
Starring |
Forest Whitaker Angela Bassett Tyrese Gibson Jennifer Hudson Mary J. Blige Vondie Curtis-Hall Nas Jacob Latimore |
Cinematography | Anastas N. Michos |
Edited by | Terilyn A. Shropshire |
Production company |
Maven Pictures |
Distributed by | Fox Searchlight Pictures |
Release dates |
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Running time | 93 minutes[1] |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $17.5 million[2] |
Box office | $7,454,185[2] |
Black Nativity is a 2013 American musical drama film directed by Kasi Lemmons. The script, written by Lemmons, is based on Langston Hughes' play of the same name and released on November 27, 2013. The film stars an African American ensemble cast featuring Forest Whitaker, Angela Bassett, Tyrese Gibson, Jennifer Hudson, Mary J. Blige, Jacob Latimore, Vondie Curtis-Hall, and Nas.
Plot
After his mother, Naima, is evicted from their Baltimore apartment, teenage Langston is sent to spend the holidays with his estranged grandparents in New York City. When he arrives in the city he just misses his grandparents and shortly after is robbed of his possessions. Entering a hotel to get directions to his grandparents place he tries to take a wallet and is quickly taken in by the police. While in the holding cell he meets a man who makes fun of him for stealing wallets. Shortly after Langston is reunited with his grandfather, the Reverend Cobb, who takes him to his home.
Langston is taken aback by the comfortable home his grandparents live in and by the fact that they know nothing about him and his mother Naima. In an attempt to bond with Langston the Reverend shows him a pocket watch with a personalized inscription from Martin Luther King, Jr. Langston pockets the watch that night and in the morning tires to pawn it off. However the pawnshop owner is a friend of his grandfather's and refuses to buy it, telling him to treasure the pocket watch and return it to his grandfather. Outside the pawnbroker's shop he meets the man he met in the holding cell passing out flyers for the pawkbroker who offers to procure for him whatever he wants. Langston asks him for a gun.
Langston tries to talk to his grandmother, Aretha, about why his mother left. She denies that he was the cause of the rift but says that his father was the reason behind their estrangement.
Despite his reluctance to attend church, Aretha and the Reverend pressure him to attend church as they are performing Langston Hughes' Black Nativity play. While there Langston falls asleep and dreams that he is a part of the nativity, with Maria, a young pregnant woman he met earlier, playing the part of the virgin Mary. Waking up, Langston leaves the church to meet with the man he met in the jail cell. The man shows him the gun he wanted and Langston takes it from him and then tries to hold him up, asking him to give him a ring he spotted earlier in the display case and all the cash in the pawnbroker's cash register. Instead the man quotes A Dream Deferred to him and reveals that he is Langston's father, Tyson. A passing police officer spots the two and enters, but Langston's father convinces him that they were only having an argument and Langston was only trying to convince him to go to church with him. The police officer then drives them to the church where they meet Naima.
Inside the church with his father and mother Langston asks his grandfather what happened between his parents. The Reverend confesses that he gave Tyson five thousand dollars to leave Naima and Langston hoping that Naima would return to her parents. Instead Naima found out what her father had done and left with Langston cutting off both Tyson and her parents. Naima tries to leave with Langston but he urges her to forgive her parents. She does, and the entire family is reunited at last.
Cast
- Forest Whitaker as Reverend Cornell Cobbs
- Angela Bassett as Aretha Cobbs
- Tyrese Gibson as Tyson/Loot
- Jennifer Hudson as Naima
- Mary J. Blige as Angel
- Vondie Curtis-Hall as Pawnbroker
- Nas as Isaiah the street prophet
- Jacob Latimore as Langston
- Rotimi as Officer Butch McDaniels
- Luke James as Jo-Jo/Joseph
- Grace Gibson as Maria/Mary
Reception
Black Nativity received mixed reviews from critics, as it currently holds a 48% rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 81 reviews with an average rating of 5.6/10. The site's consensus reads "It's sweetly amiable and solidly performed, but Black Nativity suffers from director Kasi Lemmons' heavy-handed treatment of its celebrated source material."[3] On Metacritic, the film has a score of 48 out of 100, based on 29 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[4]
Accolades
Year | Association | Category | Recipient(s) | Result | Ref. |
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2014 | NAACP Image Award | Outstanding Actress in a Motion Picture | Angela Bassett | Won | [5] |
References
- ↑ "BLACK NATIVITY". British Board of Film Classification. November 7, 2013. Retrieved November 8, 2013.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 "Black Nativity". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved April 3, 2014.
- ↑ "Black Nativity (2013)". Retrieved October 26, 2014.
- ↑ "Black Nativity Reviews". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved October 26, 2014.
- ↑ Aaron Couch, Arlene Washington (February 22, 2014). "NAACP Image Awards: The Winners". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved February 22, 2014.
External links
- Black Nativity at the Internet Movie Database
- Black Nativity at Box Office Mojo
- Black Nativity at Rotten Tomatoes
- Black Nativity at Metacritic
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