DVD Review: Fast Color

Fast Color
(DVD Fast)

I really had no idea what to expect from this quirky little film, and found myself pleasantly surprised.

 

Fast Color tells the story of Ruth (Gugu Mbatha-Raw), a young African-American woman on the run and being pursued by both the government and scientists who apparently want to study her. Within the first 15 minutes of the film, we are shown that she has special meta-human abilities, which she doesn’t seem to be able to control, but which can be catastrophically dangerous to those around her.

Ruth is traveling by herself to the midwest, in a dystopian near-future which is suffering from a massive drought. When she finally reaches the remote farmstead where her surviving family live, the reunion isn’t entirely amenable. Ruth’s mother Bo (Lorraine Toussaint) is raising Ruth’s own daughter Lila (Saniyya Sidney), after Ruth lost control of her powers, succumbed to addictions, and ran away years ago.

Though this film has science fiction or paranormal elements, at its heart it is a character study, of flawed but emotional people trying to survive and not hurt anyone else. The three main women of the cast do a phenomenal job, and there are excellent supporting performances by David Strathairn as the local sheriff and Christopher Denham as an overly enthusiastic scientist. But, Raw as Ruth and Toussaint as Bo really hold the whole film together.

Don’t go into this one expecting an action-filled SF drama — this one’s a little more quiet, but it’s worth the viewing!

[ Internet Movie Database entry for this film ]

Recommended by Scott C.
Bennett Martin Public Library

Have you watched this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewer’s recommendations!