Movie Review: The Book of Clarence by Jeymes Samuel
At first, I didn’t want to watch The Book of Clarence (2023). A hasty glance at the description made me assume the film would regurgitate low budget movies on the life of Jesus, except using Black actors this time. But my spouse thought it looked intriguing, so we watched it last night. And I’m glad we did. The film is thought-provoking and creative, presenting the gospel in a way that shatters tired and redundant versions. The movie is full of unexpected twists and turns, but the last scene brings it home in a wonderful way.
Clarence, played by LaKeith Stanfield, is a midrash on the speculated twin brother of Jesus’s disciple, Thomas, who the Bible indicates was also called Didymus (“twin” in Greek). But unlike Thomas who follows the Messiah, Clarence is a trouble-maker, dealing weed, lusting after women, and pursuing ill-gotten gain. He even hatches a plot to become a “messiah” himself, not to save anyone else, but to gain power, status, and wealth. Clarence travels to see Jesus’s mother Mary to ask how Jesus does all his “tricks,” so as to learn them himself. Mary (Alfre Woodard), a white-haired sage, makes it clear that Jesus is no trickster. Jesus is the real deal.
But Clarence remains unconvinced God exists, let alone a true Messiah, and so he persists in his fraudulent ruse. Clarence manages to persuade many that he is the Messiah, filling his coffers with money. But the more he gets what he wants, the more he realizes that all the money and status fail to satisfy him the way he expects. This provides a subtle existential window that prompts him to look more closely at himself. At one point in the movie he looks into a mirror and asks, “Who am I? What have I become?”
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