SPEC D: Nate Parker. U.S. 120 min. Sep 9, 8 pm, Winter Garden Sep 9, 9 pm, Elgin Sep 11, noon, Roy Thomson Hall Sep 17, 3 pm, Princess Of Wales. Rating: NNN
The directorial debut of actor Nate Parker – who casts himself as the slave preacher Nat Turner, leader of a failed revolt in Virginia in 1831 – would be problematic even without the controversy that’s shadowed Parker in recent weeks.
Comparisons will be made to 12 Years A Slave, since this film takes place in the same era and location as Steve McQueen’s formidable drama. But the real point of reference is Braveheart, another tale of a revolutionary tragically ahead of his time undercut by the disquieting self-regard of its writer/director/star.
Like Mel Gibson, Parker prefers action set pieces and one-dimensional villains to a complex meditation on ingrained cruelty. Also like Gibson, and perhaps more telling, he never passes up a chance to show himself shirtless and suffering. It’s one thing to make a movie about a martyr it’s quite another to pre-emptively martyr oneself.