Or generally, the person who watches cinema regularly (define, perhaps, as a movie buff), tends to select films by genre, director, protagonists or, in more specific cases, screenwriters. Native Son, directed by debutant Rashid Johnson, highlights a requirement that is often not taken into account: the producer.
Such is the case of A24, which was founded in 2012 and had Spring Breakers (Harmony Korine, 2013) as the first commercial success. Among his films, we can name Enemy (Denis Villeneuve, 2014), Ex Machina (Alex Garland, 2015), The Witch (Robert Eggers, 2016) or Moonlight (Barry Jenkins, 2016). I consider it relevant to highlight this detail, and I leave the link to the official page as it is worthwhile to internalize and inspect the entire catalog.
Now, following this line, the A24 films tend to pose unusual plot arcs, running from what we might consider a purely Hollywood commercial cinema; daring to experiment with thorough staging and emphasizing that the film is supported by the atmosphere. More detail, less detail, here appears Native Son, an ideal film for A24 (or A24 was an ideal producer for Native Son, how to know).
The film tells the story of Bigger "Big" Thomas (Ashton Sanders), a young African-American who lives in the suburbs of Chicago with his mother and two younger brothers. He is a character between eccentric and weird: he listens to punk in cassettes but he also likes classical music, wears clothes painted in an uncolored way and has green-dyed hair. He works as a bicycle messenger and spends time with his hairdresser girlfriend.
Big sees himself conscious, determined, ambitious. He always carries a gun that belonged to his father, but he has enough intelligence and decision-making power to decline a friend's offer to steal a store. Instead, he accepts a job that his stepfather gets as a driver of the Dalton family, rich whites who immediately accept him in his circle. From there, Big will approach the daughter of the family, Mary, the progressive university girl who lives between parties and drugs.
All the narration will be in charge of Big, and although there are three specific acts (Destiny, Fear, Escape), there are two clearly differentiable parts: on the one hand, the first hour, which contextualizes and reveals a climate of apparent relaxation, where a progression of circumstances will break what we might consider idyllic in the protagonist's life. Then comes the second part: Big's identity falters and falls. The drama appears, which is also a thriller, and is also a police officer; and Big's personality, which at first was his pride, becomes a reflection.
Native Son is a great debut and I think any director should feel happy to have this film as an initiatory cinematographic work. Some people think that the first hour is a little slow, even boring; but I think that the effort is compensated by a very appreciable second part. It is a gray story that is slowly twisting, which turns one hundred and eighty degrees to a sudden and inevitable desolation.
Thus, we will follow friend Rashid Johnson in his next films. And hopefully they come from the hand of A24.