Passing Strange The Movie

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Cast & Crew

Stew
Narrator

De'Adre Aziza
Edwina , Marianna , Sudabey

Daniel Breaker
Youth

Eisa Davis
Mother

Colman Domingo
Mr.Franklin , Joop , Mr. Venus

Chad Goodridge
Rev. Jones , Terry , Christophe , Hugo

Rebecca Naomi Jones
Sherry , Renata , Desi

Karen Pittman
Mom - Understudy

Spike Lee
Director

Spike Lee
Producer

Steve Klein
Producer

Matthew Libatique
Cinematographer

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News & Interviews for Passing Strange

Critic Reviews for Passing Strange

Audience Reviews for Passing Strange

• Dec 21, 2010

  In 1976, a young man(Daniel Breaker) is sleeping in on a Sunday morning in South Central Los Angeles. His mother(Eisa Davis) has other plans for him including church to which she drags him. While there, he has a religious experience but not the one she was hoping for. The message is musical, as the young man falls under the spell of Mr. Franklin(Colman Domingo), the son of the pastor. That leads to him being in a punk rock band with Sherry(Rebecca Naomi Jones) and Terry(Chad Goodridge). This is a film of the last performance of the musical "Passing Strange" at the Belasco Theatre on July 20, 2008. As such, one could argue its cinematic merits and its Broadway origins and cliches.(So many poseurs, so little time.) But what is undeniable is how entertaining the movie is, mixing genres and types of music freely. What resonated with me the most is something the narrator(Stew, who also wrote the book and co-wrote the music) said while speaking from either a podium(read into whatever symbolism you like) or sitting at a desk in that we make the biggest decisions of our life while we are teenagers, which could involve college, work or to leave home for the first time. Like the young man in the play, I thought it an easy decision but only deceptively so since I had no idea of what kind of person I would turn out to be.
  Walter M Super Reviewer
• Sep 28, 2009

  Now this was most excellent. Very entertaining musical with great performances and interesting format. Stew is highly entertaining, and Spike Lee does a great job of capturing the live performance vibe with a good blend of camera angles and shots.
  Julie B Super Reviewer
• Sep 21, 2009

  Your enjoyment of this film will probably be in some sort of equal proportion to your enjoyment of the show (if you saw it). What is great about Spike Lee's document of a performance of this not-like-anything-else musical is his remarkable eye for where you should be looking, and as he cuts from vantage point to vantage point he is unerring in focusing the work; if the close-ups sometimes rob the larger picture of its glory, they also have the benefit of making the non-linear more explicable... My appreciation of the piece remains a little distanced, but the parts that I love I out and out love. And there were more of those than I remembered, that's for sure.
  

  Jeff T Super Reviewer
• Jun 03, 2009

  Flashy filmed performance of a Broadway stage play. Set in the late 1970s, a young black musician rebels against his church-going, middle-class, South Central roots by traveling the world in an effort to experience something "real" in life. Los Angeles performance artist Stew narrates what is essentially a concert trip through a dizzying number of musical styles that touch upon gospel, punk, blues, jazz, and rock. The ubiquitous score is excellent, but it's surrounded by an incredibly stagy artifice with a noticeable lack of sets, that feels overly avant-garde. We're constantly reminded that this is a filmed play. Even the acting is affected and unnatural. The passion felt by those who were in attendance in that theater is not the same emotion felt as a viewer watching it on a screen. Brilliantly catchy songs include: "Love Like That", "Amsterdam" and "We Just Had Sex".
  Mark H Super Reviewer

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