About the Film
In American Skin, Parker plays Lincoln Jefferson, a Marine veteran, and now a janitor at a prestigious junior high school in California, in which he hopes to be able to enrol K.J. (Kajani), his 14-year-old son. The film opens with tense steadicam footage of the night when the father and son are stopped in their car by two police officers, on the pretext that they were speeding. Lincoln carefully complies with all requests, but young K.J. cannot accept their arbitrariness—he takes his cell phone out; his insistence on recording the officers sparks a tension that soon turns into violence.
One year later, after both officers got away with the murder without even having to face trial, Lincoln is furious and full of sorrow. Fresh jolts of grief are generated by the arrival of a young filmmaker who wants to shoot a film about police brutality and the death of K.J. With the outrage of having been denied due process still tormenting him, Lincoln (followed by the documentary crew) takes the entire police station—where the policeman who killed his son works—hostage. He stages a trial in which the members of the jury are the inmates and common people, acting in place of the government to finally bring justice to his son.
American Skin, especially in its third act—during the trial—admirably and timely supports the “Black Lives Matter” movement’s fight for justice. And even if the dialogues may sometimes seem too long, thanks to the charged, gripping, pinpoint performances of its actors, the film never loses its tension. Beau Knapp, in particular, who plays Mike Randall, brings off something extraordinary: in an entirely believable way, he shows us what the consciousness of white complacency looks like from the inside.
The film had its world premiere at the 76th Venice Film Festival and was presented by Spike Lee, who described it as “a brave tour de force,” adding, “I haven’t been affected by a film like this on so many levels in a long, long time. It is my hope and prayer that the movie audience will understand this battle between love and hate, which has divided our world. Bravo Nate, bravo.”
Teresa Cavina
