Get the latest gossip
‘Exhibiting Forgiveness’ Review: An Artist Comes to Grips With His Lout of a Father in a Forceful Drama Free of Feel-Good Fakery
In Titus Kaphar's first feature, an artist comes to grips with his lout of a father.
Yet the veteran stage actor John Earl Jelks delivers this memory with a light in his eye, a sudden lilt in his voice, that is heartbreaking, because what La’Ron is saying between the lines is: The reason crack was so transcendent is that my life was such a prison. He lives, in an unnamed metropolis, in a beautifully designed home that houses his large studio (bedecked with posters from “Do the Right Thing,” “The Godfather,” and “Basquiat”), where he works hard on his canvases, a process the film lets us in on with enticing flavor and detail, the way Martin Scorsese did in “Life Lessons.” Tarrell is that rarity, a painter who’s made his own niche in the art world. He’s married to Aisha, a noted musician (played by Andra Day, so good as the title jazz legend of “The United States vs. Billie Holiday”), and the two have a young son, Tre (Daniel Michael Barriere); apart from the occasional squabble about who gets to take time on their next project first, they also have a strong marriage.
Or read this on Variety