2013 television movie
Rating: 12/20 (Jen: 14/20; Emma: 11/20; Abbey: 12/20)
Plot: It's 1963, and the titular family from Flint, Michigan, decides to visit family in the titular city where some of them encounter segregation for the first time.
I'd read this book by Christopher Paul Curtis which I liked enough, and Abbey had to read it in her English class and wanted to check out the movie. It's very faithful to the book, meandering just where that one meanders and serving as a nice history lesson about the segregated South and some of the insane lengths certain bigots would go to show off their hatred. Two tones are juxtaposed--the more comedic stuff at the beginning characterizes the family members while the stuff in the South is as nasty as it's supposed to be. With the book, I thought parts were extraneous; here, added with clumsy direction and a glossy cheapness, it was sort of annoying. Also annoying is this experimental camera trickery that just did not work at all. Once the family sets out on their trip, we get some film that's made to look like it's documentary footage or home video stuff. It's pretty silly. The climactic scene, one that is supposed to be powerful and emotional, is a total mess where the lack of budget bleeds through and camera shakiness and pristine extras who don't seem to know what they're supposed to be doing create the wrong kind of chaos. I enjoyed some of the performances. Harrison Knight is OK as the oldest child, the mischievous Byron. Wood Harris and Anika Noni Rose are great as the parents, and LaTanya Richardson steals the show as Grandma Sands even if the character comes across as more of a cliche than an actual person. Unfortunately, you get some bad acting from Bryce Clyde Jenkins and Skai Jackson, not surprising considering their names are Bryce Clyde and Skai. This is a worthy effort but kind of a messy failure, and I'm sure there are better documentaries or even fictions made about the subject.
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