Synopsis
A Brooklyn teenager juggles conflicting identities and risks friendship, heartbreak, and family in a desperate search for sexual expression.
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Cast
- Adepero OduyeAlike
- Pernell WalkerLaura
- Aasha DavisBina
- Kim WayansAudrey
- Charles ParnellArthur
- Sahra MellesseSharonda
- Rob MorganSock
- Shamika CottonCandace
- Zabryna GuevaraMrs. Alvarado
- Raymond Anthony ThomasMack
Recommendations
- 80
Village Voice
The first 10 minutes of Dee Rees's funny, moving, nuanced, and impeccably acted first feature, in which coming of age and coming out are inseparable, sharply reveal the conflicts that 17-year-old Alike (Adepero Oduye) faces. - 80
Los Angeles Times
At its soulful heart, Pariah is a stinging street-smart story of an African American teen's struggle to come of age and come out - to the father who still calls her "daddy's little girl" and the mother who quotes the Bible and buys her pink frills. - 80
Movieline
Pariah wouldn't work without Oduye's luminous performance, capturing the emotional nuances of a character not prone to letting her emotions show. - 75
New York Post
This is a look at the joy, confusion and heartbreak of adolescence that's both culture- and locale-specific and, at the same time, universal. - 70
Boxoffice Magazine
The messy uplift audiences can expect from this butterfly awakening they'll get in spades. - 70
The Hollywood Reporter
First-timer Dee Rees offers a fresh take on the overfamiliar coming-out genre. - 70
Variety
Vivid photography, true-to-life moments and a wonderful lead performance compensate for some first-timer missteps in debutante writer-director Dee Rees' Pariah. - 70
The New York Times
At its heart is an incandescent performance by Ms. Oduye, who captures the jagged mood swings of late adolescence with a wonderfully spontaneous fluency.
