The Book of Clarence

I have no idea where I first hear about most of the movies I watch. In all likelihood, someone posted about this on social media, and it flew by my eyes without making much of an impression. Clearly, it was enough that I took note of it playing nearby, so I could catch it when I had a free afternoon. But I had no idea of genre or actors or story or anything. I did give it a quick Google beforehand, as the title gave me pause. What I found gave me no further clarity. Wikpedia called it a “biblical comedy-drama”, which is a strange combination that tells me no more about its angle. However, seeing LaKeith Stanfield was the lead, I decided “Why not?”

While I came out still a bit fuzzy, I can honestly say I’m glad I watched it.

Clarence (LaKeith Stanfield) is a petty crook, a charismatic swindler, and general scoundrel in Jerusalem, AD 33. After getting himself into deep debt with Jedediah the Terrible (Eric Kofi Abrefa), a local crime lord, he’s in desperate need of a way to make money. He sees the money people throw at Jesus of Nazareth (Nicholas Pinnock), and draws inspiration from him and his apostles. An ironic proposition, due to his lack of belief in their god and his insistence on stating so to their faces. Nonetheless, it’s the beginning of his journey to a deeper understanding of himself, and of the true meaning of self-sacrifice.

Which sounds like a pretty dire and serious story. But the movie opens with Clarence yelling at his best friend Elijah (RJ Cyler) to run over a beggar with their chariot so as to not lose a race against Mary Magdalene (Teyana Taylor). We’re going to have fun through action and character dynamics and comedy. Although the various threads make for an odd tone. We’ve got a man planning to become a false Messiah to avoid being murdered for failing to pay off his debts, a forbidden love story, and a faith movie concerning the final year of Jesus’ life, all rolled into one. Not only that, they all collide and mix around and influence each other.

So it helps immensely to have a performer as strong and compelling as Stanfield in the lead role. You need someone to root for, even if they’re not the most upstanding. And you need a throughline to hold onto as we swirl through these events and interact with biblical and historical figures whose names you recognize. He lends Clarence the deep sense of sadness always on his face, the feeling that he knows life will keep kicking him in the teeth, and the refusal to let that stop him from fighting for what he wants and knows he deserves. Not only that, but when he switches into action mode, as in the chariot race or the fight with Barabbas (Omar Sy) or others, you believe it. When called upon, he can absolutely put on a cocky, tough guy air without a shred of irony.

None of this is to diminish the work of the supporting cast. Everyone’s doing a great job, especially Pinnock and Sy. But to the extent the movie works, it does not work without Stanfield.

Thematically, director Jeymes Samuel is interested in what the concept of faith means both to and for those who do not believe. None of the actions taken by Clarence have anything to do with Jesus, and yet all move them closer. His baptism, attempting to free Barabbas, pleading with the apostles to take him in. Each is a hollow action on the path to becoming somebody, to making himself worthy of Varinia (Anna Diop), to settling up with Jedediah. Yet much as the path to hell is paved with good intentions, so can the path to heaven be paved with bad ones.

Additionally, simply by making every Jerusalemite Black, Samuel is calling your attention the general absence of people of color from traditional biblical films. Hollywood never found a setting they couldn’t whitewash, and a land inhabited primarily by Arabs was no different. But he’s doing a bit more here, actually depicting the racial dynamics we see in the modern day US. The Romans are all lily white, and the Centurions and other authorities function as police and the judicial system. Even more explicitly, one of them goes a little mad with power and attempts to murder a fleeing Jerusalemite, saying to his men “You all saw him lunge at me, threatening my life, didn’t you?” It’s not subtle or particularly nuanced, sure. The point is it’s there.

All of this hints at the movie’s biggest issue, though. It has a whole bunch of ideas to juggle, along with a handful of tones it’s moving between. The result is that some of these land with a thud even when you can see exactly what it’s going for. Not only that, but the ensemble cast means we spend a bunch of individual scenes with people we’ll see once more at most. And all of these complications serve to keep us at an emotional distance. Which is often a problem in and of itself, but it makes the end even more of a slog when it slows down to hit Every. Single. Emotional. Beat. Super. Hard. They don’t really land, and feel very drawn out and overwrought. Especially since events around them make it very clear where we’re going.

Then there’s the whole Benjamin (Benedict Cumberbatch) subplot that emerges, which makes thematic sense and contributed to the race commentary, but is just an awkward fit for the film.

This movie was always going to be a hard sell. When I got home, I watched the teaser and the trailer out of curiosity. Which prove they had no clue how to market it: I was sold two incredibly different films, nether of which really captured what I watched (although the teaser was closer). Yes, it’s a film which doesn’t neatly fit into any boxes, so there isn’t a template for how to cut the trailer they can use as a guide. Maybe more importantly is that studios tend to be bad at marketing films aimed at a Black audience, or even which just center Blackness and the Black experience. Because there is a ton of star power in here, including a number of names I haven’t mentioned (Alfre Woodard, James McAvoy, and Anna Diop, to name a few), which should be able to pull in an audience. Instead, it’s looking to have a really poor showing in its opening weekend.

Which is a damn shame, because this is definitely one of the more unique films I’ve seen recently. We don’t make biblical movies any more unless they’re aimed squarely at evangelical Christians, much less ones that are anything like this. Hopefully this proves to have legs, or at least manages to not discourage Samuel, as he’s shaping up to be an interesting filmmaker.