Luce

Neon | Release Date: August 2, 2019

7.2	USER SCORE Generally favorable reviews based on 44 Ratings

USER RATING DISTRIBUTION

Positive:

Mixed:

Negative:

Watch Now

Stream On

Buy on

Stream On

Expand

Review this movie

VOTE NOW

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Please sign in or create an account before writing a review.

Check box if your review contains spoilers

0 characters (5000 max)

User Reviews

User score By date Most helpful

GreatMartinSep 6, 2019

"Luce" is a picture with many questions and very few answers, not giving you enough information to know what the questions are!

We have a white couple (Naomi Watts and Tim Roth) who adopted a black 7 year old boy(Kelvin Harrison Jr.) who was"Luce" is a picture with many questions and very few answers, not giving you enough information to know what the questions are!

We have a white couple (Naomi Watts and Tim Roth) who adopted a black 7 year old boy(Kelvin Harrison Jr.) who was born in war torn Eritrea, Africa, and now is a model teenager who went through intensive therapy to be the perfect student and son. He is a soon-to-be valedictorian, a track star, football player, the debate team captain and to one of his black history teachers (Octavia Spencer) he represents what every black male should be who may or may not overstep her authority. She feels women must stand up for themselves using a student( Andrea Bang)) who may or may not have been assaulted by school jocks as an example and that men must be certain way.

Luce, (Harrison Jr), writes an essay the history teacher (Spencer) asks the class to submit assuming the voice of a historical figure and instead of using someone like FDR as the teacher expected Luce uses the voice of Frantz Fanon, a French West Indian psychiatrist and revolutionary who talked about violence as a weapon.

The screenwriters JC Lee and Julius Onah do not give you enough information on many points and Onah, who also directed, confuses things further by making cuts that make absolutely no sense.

All of the cast are first class from the leads, especially Kelvin Harrison Jr, Noah Gaynor and Omar Brian Bradley as his friends with the latter losing a sports scholarship because he isn't a Luce model, Marxha Stephanie Blake as the history teacher's sister with a personality disorder plus Leo Norbert Butz as the principal of the school.

"Luce" would have been a much better movie if either it made more sense or cleared up exactly what problems were involved and/or gave more information so a sensible debate could have taken place after the movie about some, if not all, the issues brought up.… Expand

1 of 1 users found this helpful10

All this user's reviews

LamontRaymondAug 3, 2019

The acting is good - especially Tim Roth and Octavia Spencer - but the story falls apart in the end. It's one big tease. I'm getting tired of this kind of movie.... can't recommend it.

2 of 4 users found this helpful22

All this user's reviews

amheretojudgeAug 27, 2019

Not for a single moment does the film turns into a preaching-to-the-choir tone, and that is its biggest achievement.

Luce Onah's political film isn't exactly political. If anything it is a thriller. And that's what I loved the most aboutNot for a single moment does the film turns into a preaching-to-the-choir tone, and that is its biggest achievement.

Luce

Onah's political film isn't exactly political. If anything it is a thriller. And that's what I loved the most about the film than any other theme or twist or trick it showcases. The co-writer and director Juilius Onah and the play by J.C. Lee- who also co-wrote the screenplay- from which it is adapted, eventually has a political film to endorse about. But that's as far as it would go. The debates, the ideologies or the profound theories are definitely circling around these sensitive subjects, but for the most part of the film, it is all a distraction. The actual heart of these arguments lie on the arrogance of these incredibly smart character on not bowing down to each other's theories.

And from this spirals out a tug-of-war where step after step both of them (Octavia Spencer and Kelvin Harrison Jr.) are trying to outsmart each other. I cannot help myself but compare these throbbing philosophical and provoking arguments to Christopher Nolan's The Prestige and its take on fame, art and sacrifice. Spence and Harrison Jr. from the very beginning are tangled into unfathomable circumstances giving them an excuse of a specific perspective that acts as a double edged sword for both of them.

Their denial isn't what's lagging or stretching this juicy case but is what's making it fun, entertaining and engaging. And this is the brilliance of the narration, What could have easily comes off as a pretentious or tedious detour, is instead smoothly spicing up this political drama. Tim Roth and Naomi Watts too are integrating the performance scale to a whole new level. Just watch them all sit in a room and greet each other, in the last act of the film, the tension cuts across their ability to harness a single good intention in this meeting where they gather to talk about Luce.… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

All this user's reviews