
Titus Kaphar, a visual artist, has shifted to the medium of film by writing and directing a feature film titled “Exhibiting Forgiveness.” His work resists categorization. He has paintings from different periods of his career stacked one upon the other, or he has cut pieces out of their canvases. These layers and omissions are always meant to enhance Black identity, whether by universalization or subversion. Wielding his artwork as the skeleton of the film, like all other works, “Exhibiting Forgiveness” seeks to examine and interpret the impacts of generational trauma and the connections shared between fathers and sons in particular.
Tarrell (André Holland) is a painter. After completing a successful show, his agent urges him to capitalize on his popularity and hold a new one. Tarrell is creative but comes up with ideas slowly. He has a young son, Jermaine (Daniel Michael Barriere), and a devoted wife who has put her music career on the sideline, Aisha (Andra Day) who has the net and is eager to get back to the work environment, so is reluctant to jump back in.
Years spent painting and working toward a show’s opening, not only robs Aisha from pursuing her life goals, but also takes a toll on the time he can spend with his son, and being a father is as important.
One day, Tarrell’s mother Joyce (Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor) receives an unexpected visit from Tarrell’s father La’Ron (John Earl Jelks), and brings him along to visit Tarrell. This leads to Tarrell being forced to deal with issues from his past he wishes to not touch. Joyce, who practices very hardcore religion, wishes this will allow them both to move on from the past of abuse and addiction. Even if La’Ron begs to show Tarrell that he has found God and changed for good, the beast of Tarrell’s childhood clawing at him in the middle of the night hinders his willingness to forgive.
“Exhibiting Forgiveness” is more of a work of art than forgiveness portrayed visually. Each shot to the next shot is fabulous, thanks to cinematographer Lachlan Milne’s Minari photography. He guides the camera, and together with Kaphar’s direction, they make a clear reference to Kaphar’s own paintings in the compositional choices, while at the same time paying homage to Gordon Parks’ breathtaking scenes.
Romantic is the word to describe the portraiture of the film as one gets to experience the deep performances that elevate “Exhibiting Forgiveness” through long serves and close-ups.
Holland and Jelks are a duo that breaks all the barriers and seems to portray the characters adeptly. Kaphar’s screenplay lays its foundation on the variety of dialogues that span throughout the film, delivering an unparalleled experience to viewers. While such dialogues can at times seem overdramatic, it is courtesy of Holland and Jelk that combine the dialogues into a singular heartrending feeling.
A glimpse of Jelk’s eyes alone can depict the multitude of La’Ron’s guilt, love, and stubbornness, along with the attempt for redemption. After impressively acting out Tarrell in ‘Moonlight’, Holland is wrongfully typecasted in supporting roles, and here, portrays La’Ron with an impressive performance that balances his deep wordless expressions of trepidation with the character’s fidgeting and pacing. Along with aggressive body language, Holland possesses the perfect blend of gentle performance portraying both the childlike innocence wrapped with conflicting identities and gentle assertiveness.
Kaphar makes use of these characters to tell a deeply family-rooted story while simultaneously tackling the rough and harsh intracommunity narratives of black fathers and their sons.
His account does not shy away from the fact that every previous generation has been closer to the most painful aspects of Black history, and there isn’t a single person who has not endured trauma and a lot of things to unlearn. All the while, Joyce and La’Ron do attempt to nudge Tarrell into the realm of forgiveness, aided by the use of God and the Bible, Kaphar is very opposed to the practice of forgiveness in religion solely for the objective of absolution. It is necessary for “Exhibiting Forgiveness” to provide La’Ron with biographical sympathy without the anthropological f ira g h t. This is Tarrell’s film, one that embraces and accepts the thought that some matters must remain unforgiven. Kaphar’s film is bloated with meaningless extent stretchers with a few exo and cope patterns but remains highly emotional because it fully trusts the ideas of its actors, who turn them into beautiful reality.
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