Rob Peace
Summary
British actor - turned - director Chiwetel Ejiofor premiered his sophomore featureRob Peaceat the 2024 Sundance Film Festival . Adapted from Jeff Hobbs ’ 2014 life history , The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace , the film is a hollow examination on inner city life history and the wallop it could have on a immature man ’s future tense . Surely Ejiofor meant well with his reflection on the unfair natural event in Rob ’s life . However , it at last descend off as too rushed when hide its undercoat . The film takes more emotional hits than it delivers on quality storytelling , resulting in an experience that feel uncomplete yet exploitative .
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Cast
Rob Peace is a biographic drama written and head by Chiwetel Ejiofor and was released in 2024 . establish on the biography by Jeff Hobbs , Rob Peace follows the nominal humankind who grow up in a life-time of poverty and crime in New Jersey but still get by to attain an Ivy League education at Yale while spend a penny money selling marijuana on the side .
Rob Peacestarts off well with Rob ’s voiceover explain how one sign fire changed his life , and we learn that it has jump - start Rob ’s warmth for science . We skim in advance to 1987 Orange , New Jersey , where a vernal Robert ( Jelani Dacres ) idolizes his father , Skeet ( Ejiofor ) . Their relationship is an mutualist one — Rob trusts his don ’s every Bible and Skeet figure his boy as the neighborhood ’s next savior . As time goes on , one unfair ruling direct to tragedy , and the script research how familial pressures can go to poor conclusion - fashioning in a arrangement that sets Rob up for failure .
Ejiofor ’s direction lack the self-assurance required to to the full explore how a tragic ending can come from such a brilliant futurity .
There ’s not much I like about Chiwetel Ejiofor’sRob Peace . There ’s quite a chip of item miss to help consultation understand the solemnity of Rob ’s luck . Rob went from idolizing his father to being his father ’s only saving grace of God . The genial anguish that ensue when a parent is now the pendant takes its toll , and Ejiofor ’s narrative turn down to dive deeper into this . Minor conversations unwrap information , and it afford you just enough to offend your emotional interest . However , Ejiofor ’s focussing lacks the confidence necessitate to fully research how a tragic end can come from such a brilliant future .
Rob Peace Plays Out Like An Important Perspective Is Missing
Skeet puts enormous pressure on his son to get him released from prison house when Rob ’s precedence has already shifted to his future tense . Rob is brilliant , and he ’s just been accepted to Yale University . However , Rob ’s allegiance to his father threatens his academic promise . As with most of us in the Black community of interests , there ’s an total pressure of cater to your mob ’s needs while seek to individualize yourself and make a better spirit in the process .
It ’s a riddle of doing what ’s best for yourself to aid your community versus put all your effort into help the ones that need you the most . Yet , there ’s no geographic expedition of this , nor does Ejiofor explore the genial wellness impact on Rob . As a effect , it comes off as empty . One of the worst parts comes when Rob ’s white roomy compares his family relationship with his Church Father to Rob and Skeet ’s . The scene is enrage . “ My Dad would never allow me to risk anything , ” Hobbs says . Well , felicitation on being in a side where you do n’t have to !
It feel like coarse sense to not compare the two completely unlike situation and relationships , but this script does far sorry . I suppose I should n’t really be surprised , especially since the script harped so proudly on the whitened bequest students not get in bother for the same affair a student of color would as a humorous shaft . Whether or not the real Hobbs said this is something I do n’t know , but it amount off as whole tint - deaf in the film . And it ’s yet another example of why this story does n’t work .
The book does n’t trust the audience to make up their own brain .
There ’s a minute towards the third human action where I started to see some advance in the committal to writing , but by then it was too late . This come after countless time when case talk about how peachy Rob ’s bosom is or how it ’s of import to do things from the heart . Not only was this cheesy , it completely relies on the talks over building authentic relationships . Without the spoon - feed , Rob Peacecould have worked . But the script does n’t trust the audience to make up their own minds and judge what we ’re catch for ourselves .
Poor Storytelling Choices Result In Empty Emotions
I would n’t go as far as to claim thatRob Peaceis free of all emotion , but every metre there was a coup d’oeil of intellectual sentiment , it was undercut by a poor guiding choice that I could n’t look preceding . Even consequence between Rob and his mother are nearly forgotten about , as there is a orotund stretch of the photographic film where Jackie ’s bearing is nonexistent , or she does n’t even check over up on her son .
It ’s challenging for me to trust that a mother who once order her son that “ for once in your life you’re able to just breathe and discover your dream,”wouldn’t check in on him at all . It feels empty , tasteless , and unrealistic , especially since he had plenty of metre to accept calls from his Church Father from jail . It removes the true heart of the film . And once again , we have a film that invalidates the grandness of Black women when it comes to parentage .
The economize grace of the photographic film all come down to Jay Will ’s breakout execution . Rob Peacesimply does not function without him . Will ’s charisma and dedication towards showcasing the light that Rob was offers a quilt to me that this film as a whole fail to provide . Will perfectly encapsulates the inner turmoil feel by Rob with concrete emotion and counterbalance . I just wish the script had done him justness .
Rob Peacepremiered at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival .
