‘Rustin’ Telluride Review: Colman Domingo Gives Civil Rights Icon His Due

“Wicked Little Letters” narrates the bizarre tale of several foul-mouthed anonymous letters that began terrorizing the small British town of Littlehampton in the 1920s. Against all odds, what might seem like a contrived, ridiculous story is almost entirely true.

J. Kim Murphy A24 has acquired theatrical distribution rights to “Sing Sing,” five days after the Colman Domingo-starring drama made its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival.

EXCLUSIVE: In competitive bidding, A24 has acquired U.S. theatrical rights to Sing Sing, the Greg Kwedar-directed drama that stars Colman Domingo. The film premiered at Toronto to rapturous reviews and A24 is plotting a 2024 theatrical release. Deal is 7-figures.

The Gotham Awards said today that Rustin, director George C. Wolfe’s snapshot of the life of civil rights icon Bayard Rustin that stars Colman Domingo, will receive its Icon & Creator Tribute for Social Justice. The Netflix pic will be honored at the 33rd annual Gotham Awards on November 27 at Cipriani Wall Street in Manhattan.

Stephen Saito Cages can’t contain the sheer amount of imagination on offer in “Sing Sing” — not just in the way director Greg Kwedar and his writing and producing partner Clint Bentley conceived of the prison-set drama, but also as an animating force among its characters. Apart from Colman Domingo and a few others, most of the cast are formerly incarcerated alumni of the Rehabilitation Through the Arts program, which stages theatrical productions at New York’s Sing Sing Correctional Facility.

Colman Domingo shows off his award following the TIFF Tribute Gala during the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival over the weekend.

Michael Keaton, after making his directorial debut with 2008’s The Merry Gentleman, steps behind the camera for only the second time with his latest film, Knox Goes Away in which he also delivers one of his finest and most poignant performances as a man facing a rare form of fast moving dementia, but who is racing the clock to save his estranged son’s life before it is too late.

Todd Gilchrist editor An adult-oriented crowd pleaser of the sort that seldom gets made any longer without superheroes being involved, and better than that, is quite entertaining, “A Haunting in Venice” extends 2023’s streak as the Year That Hollywood Lured Grown-Ups Back To Theaters. Less prestigious than practiced in spotlighting the star wattage of its pedigreed cast, Kenneth Branagh’s third Agatha Christie adaptation offers a nimble stopgap between drier art-house fare, traditional studio tentpoles and scrappy genre material leaching ticket sales from their pricier competitors — while satisfying all three potential audiences.

Naman Ramachandran Toronto Film Festival Midnight Madness world premiere “Kill” is a confluence of three stellar Indian talents. Producer Guneet Monga Kapoor is an Oscar winner for “The Elephant Whisperers”; fellow producer and filmmaker Karan Johar is a Bollywood A-lister who has just delivered massive hit “Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani”; and director Nikhil Nagesh Bhat is known for Netflix film “Long Live Brij Mohan” and Prime Video series “Rasbhari.” “Kill” belongs to the extreme action genre, a rarity in Indian cinema. Set entirely on an express train to New Delhi, the film follows Indian army commandos Amrit and Viresh, who are on a mission to rescue Amrit’s girlfriend Tulika.

Sophia Scorziello editor Virginia’s Middleburg Film Festival, now in its 11th year, is set to open this October with Netflix’s Bayard Rustin biopic “Rustin” starring Colman Domingo. Director George C.

TELLURIDE – We’re just gonna get the bad news out of the way first. There is perhaps no movie more personally – and emphasis on “personally” – disappointing at the 2023 Telluride Film Festival for this critic than Christos Nikou’s “Fingernails.” As a big fan of his exquisite 2020 debut, “Apples,” we were crossing our fingers that he’d avoid the dreaded sophomore slump.

Peter Debruge Chief Film Critic It’s not easy to upstage Martin Luther King Jr., but that’s exactly what leading man Colman Domingo does in “Rustin,” a movie named for the civil rights pioneer who gave King the platform to speak his most famous four words: “I have a dream.” That day, Aug. 28, 1963, on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, the man standing just over King’s right shoulder — quite literally, his right-hand man — was one Bayard Rustin.

TELLURIDE – At a festival full of gutsy films Daina O. Pusić’s directorial feature debut, “Tuesday,” may be the most visionary of them all.

TELLURIDE – Considering the success and adoration of the “Sideways,” it’s sort of surprising it took Alexander Payne and Paul Giamatti this long to find another film to make together. Almost 20 years later, the director and actor have reteamed for “The Holdovers,” which debuted at this year’s Telluride Film Festival.

TELLURIDE – Since screening Annie Baker’s “Janet Planet,” which had its world premiere at the 2023 Telluride Film Festival on Friday, we’ve been wracking our brains with an unexpected query. When was the last time someone who has so mastered the stage – Baker is a Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright, mind you – crafted a directorial feature debut of such artistic confidence? A film that feels a million miles from the confines of a sterile theatrical setting.

TELLURIDE – Let the record show that Emerald Fennell is an utterly fearless filmmaker. I mean, we already knew that to an extent after her audacious debut, “Promising Young Woman,” but to say she’s taken that to another level with her latest extravagant concoction, “Saltburn,” is an understatement of epic proportions.

Colman Domingo blows through the title role like a force of nature in Rustin, an exhilarating biographical drama about the highly significant but not widely known civil rights leader Bayard Rustin, whose career and reputation in the 1960s were minimized, at least in part, by his hardly disguised homosexuality.

TELLURIDE- Despite a varied resume that includes art-house Sci-Fi, a classic coming-of-age tale, and a haunting drama on racial injustice, we weren’t sure Jeff Nichols had it in him to make a movie such as “The Bikeriders.” After its world premiere at the 2023 Telluride Film Festival, we’ll likely never doubt him again. Nichols has crafted a highly entertaining period piece on a legendary biker club that is at times sexy, funny, and filled with fisticuffs.

TELLURIDE – Let the record show that Emerald Fennell is an utterly fearless filmmaker. I mean, we already knew that to an extent after her audacious debut, “Promising Young Woman,” but to say she’s taken that to another level with her latest extravagant concoction, “Saltburn,” is an understatement of epic proportions.

TELLURIDE – There is quiet tension bubbling underneath Andrew Haigh’s latest endeavor. An often sublime drama that features a unique reunion between a son and his parents and a transformative, passionate romance.