'Rustin' review: Queering the civil rights movement

Newfest 2023 | In Netflix’s new biopic, Colman Domingo plays civil rights activist Bayard Rustin as he plans the March on Washington in just eight weeks

Thanks to a focused storyline and sensational theatrical performance by Colman Domingo, Rustin largely transcends the typical biopic formula to deliver a satisfying account of Bayard Rustin’s formation of the March on Washington. While George C. Wolfe’s kinetic direction keeps you engrossed in the story, a light screenplay doesn’t allow us to explore the complexities of a Black queer man at the forefront of the civil rights movement.

Rustin had its New York City premiere at the 2023 New York LGBTQ+ Film Festival.

Bayard Rustin, the unsung hero of the civil rights movement, is finally given his flowers in Netflix’s new biopic directed by George C. Wolfe (Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom) as it hones in on the eight week dash to plan the now historic March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. It’s not surprising if you didn’t know who Rustin was before. His involvement in the civil rights movement was often relegated to the background since he was one of the few gay men to be out in the 1960s. However, Rustin doesn’t shy away from it.

There’s something about a biopic that just works that is so satisfying. It’s the perfect combination of an interesting but unsung subject and a specific story told with enough of a singular vision to transcend past conventional biopic trappings — and Rustin, for the most part, finds the right formula. By focusing in on the planning for the March on Washington and Rustin’s impulses to live life as an out and proud gay man with the spotlight encroaching on him gives the movie focus where other biopics feel unnecessarily packed.

George C. Wolfe’s deft direction fueled by saxophonist and composer Branford Marsalis‘s kinetic score keeps you engrossed in the story while constantly introducing new characters that weave the tapestry of the near-impossible feat of organizing the largest peaceful protest in history. To carve out storylines for a figure as massive as Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (Aml Ameen) as well as an invisible figure of the movement like Rustin’s lover Tom (Gus Halper in an impressive supporting turn) and mine sympathy for both is nearly as impressive. However, if those supporting performances are the blood of the movie, Colman Domingo‘s performance as Bayard Rustin is the strong beating heart.

Domingo is nothing short of sensational. A theatrical rendering of a man that in many ways was larger than life living in a world that sought to dull his shine — both from those against him and on his side. Despite his preference for collaboration, as seen in a charming scene where he begins the seeds of the march with a good ol’ fashioned brainstorm, he seems to be fighting for his voice to be heard constantly. Partially because his panache was itself seen as a sort of protest, but also because with any movement egos can quickly get in the way. With politicians, the NAACP and activists, there was as much division in the movement as there was outside. What Julian Breece and Oscar winner Dustin Lance Black‘s screenplay attempts to explore is how Rustin was able to coalesce those ideas into what is now seared into our country’s consciousness.

Rustin‘s greatest flaw is that it tends to shy away from his flaws to begin with. There are moments where it begins to probe Rustin’s penchant for distraction (often of the male variety) and rigidity in vision, but it never goes as far as to criticize him. Rustin’s inner turmoil will bubble its way to the surface in fits and starts, but often the movie will cut away just before it gives us any sort of real insight. It’s why the stakes never feel great.

While that makes the movie less successful as a portrait of Bayard Rustin, as an account of his involvement in the planning of the March on Washington it is a satisfying jaunt. It feels like a lost peace of history finally brought to the surface as it doesn’t shy away from Rustin’s queerness. In fact, it centers it in a way we don’t often see in mainstream biopics (*couch*Bohemian Rhapsody*cough*). Coupled with Colman Domingo’s charismatic performance, Rustin is an easy biopic — for both better and worse — that is easy to find yourself lost in.

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Hey! I’m Karl. You can find me on Twitter here. I’m also a Tomatometer-approved critic.

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Karl Delossantos

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Hey, I'm Karl, founder and film critic at Smash Cut. I started Smash Cut in 2014 to share my love of movies and give a perspective I haven't yet seen represented. I'm also an editor at The New York Times, a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, and a member of the Online Film Critics Society.