Luce

Based on J.C. Lee’s controversial stage play, Julius Onah’s film discusses racial prejudice and status. With the help of outstanding actors, including Naomi Watts and Tim Roth playing a privileged couple who, many years earlier, decided to adopt a little boy from war-torn Eritrea. The former child soldier who survived hell is turning into a popular and exemplary pupil (Kelvin Harrison Jr.). They want you to win, a says a friend of his who can’t expect any special treatment. And only one of his teachers (Octavia Spencer), alarmed by his essay, doesn’t seem entirely convinced that Luce has completely forgotten his traumatic past. In Onah’s third film—shot following the thriller The Cloverfield Paradox—the director patiently scrapes away a fresh layer of paint from the famous American Dream in order to find out what it really means today—and if everyone can really afford it.