Filled with speeches, ideological debates and an aura of group therapy, ““Get On the Bus’’ certainly has moments when you feel you are watching not people but position papers. Yet the wonder of this funky, heartfelt film is that its humanity easily eclipses its didacticism. Working fast and cheap (the movie was shot for $2.4 million on Super 16mm, financed entirely by the black community), Lee seems revitalized by the urgency of the endeavor. It’s his loosest movie in years. A great cast, including Charles S. Dutton, Andre Braugher, Ossie Davis, Jefferson Byrd, Isaiah Washington, Wendell Pierce, Gabriel Casseus, Roger Guenveur Smith and Hill Harper, breathes life into every scene. Like the march itself–which is only briefly glimpsed–““Get On the Bus’’ is conceived as a challenge to black men to take accountability for their lives. A sermon wrapped in a road movie, at its best it can stir the soul.
All Aboard
January 1, 2023 · 1 min · 150 words · Diane Hebert