The truth has always many faces.
Adopted from war-torn Eritrea, Luce Edgar is an all-star high school athlete and accomplished debater who is adored by other school students and his parents, Peter and Amy Edgar. However, he has animosity toward his history teacher, Harriet Wilson, who got his friend DeShaun kicked off the running team after finding marijuana in his locker and calling the police.
Harriet calls Amy, asking her to meet at school. She shows her Luce’s written assignment in which, asked to write from the perspective of a historical figure, he chose Frantz Fanon, a political revolutionary who argued that colonialism can be overcome through violence. Harriet is concerned, as Luce was a child soldier before coming to America, and someone like him writing this could get in trouble. Harriet also tells Amy that she went through Luce’s locker and found a bag full of illegal and dangerous fireworks.
Amy shows Peter the paper and the fireworks; both are unsettled, but decide to hide them and not mention anything to Luce. During dinner, the family brings up Harriet again. Luce accuses her of singling out students to make a point. He tells them how Harriet often uses Stephanie Kim, a classmate allegedly sexually abused at a party while drunk, as an example of a victimized woman suffering in silence. Luce is Harriet’s shining example of a star black student, which is not how he wants to be seen, arguing that he does not want to be tokenized. Later, Luce finds the hidden paper and fireworks.
Luce is a 2019 American thriller drama film, directed by Julius Onah from a screenplay by Onah and JC Lee. The film stars Naomi Watts, Octavia Spencer, Kelvin Harrison Jr., Norbert Leo Butz, and Tim Roth. Luce had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival on January 27, 2019 and was theatrically released on August 2, 2019 by NEON. The film received positive reviews from critics, who praised the cast’s performances and Onah’s direction
Luce(2019)
Directed by: Julius Onah
Starring: Naomi Watts, Octavia Spencer, Kelvin Harrison Jr., Hannah Cabell, Norbert Leo Butz, Tim Roth, Ian Unterman, Amanda Troya, Zoe Whitford, Christopher Mann, Noah Gaynor, Faith Logan
Screenplay by: J. C. Lee, Julius Onah
Production Design by: Lisa Myers
Cinematography by: Larkin Seiple
Film Editing by: Madeleine Gavin
Costume Design by: Keri Langerman
Set Decoration by: Nicki Ritchie
Art Direction by: Danica Pantic
Music by: Geoff Barrow, Ben Salisbury
MPAA Rating: R for language throughout, sexual content, nudity and some drug use.
Distributed by: Neon
Release Date: August 2, 2019
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