Best Actor 2023: Colman Domingo in Rustin

Colman Domingo received his first Oscar nomination for portraying Bayard Rustin in Rustin. 

Rustin tells the story of the titular civil rights leader, specifically how he organized the march on Washington, a subject who obviously had much to say, unfortunately this film has very little to say. 

Colman Domingo has been making a name for himself in recent years as a reliable and dynamic character actor, so it is always nice to see such an actor get a chance to bite into a leading role. And Domingo seems to have a juicy role as the civil rights leader who is almost abandoned by his own people due to being a homosexual in their ranks. We open the film in a flimsy, seemingly quickly slapped together sequence as Rustin falls in and out of favor in the hierarchy of the African American rights movement, originally as one of the strongest proponents of Martin Luther King Jr. Domingo though goes head first into the part regardless bringing this sort of showmanship to the part as the man purposefully selling his energy, in this instance to sell the energy to King, and is successful in creating an immediate sense of charisma for the man. The poor writing here though hinders him a little as the relationship between he and MLK is supposed to be extremely close which we are just told in a quick snippet of the relationship where blunt exposition fails miserably to create a history, though Domingo is eager to try in expressing an excited warmth to be known as "uncle" Bayard by King's children. But just as quickly as we seem to hear so much about this he is quickly expelled for his homosexuality where we get a quick expression from Domingo, which certainly delivers on the weight of that disappointment unfortunately adds up to little more than a simple expression because we had so little build towards this moment, it truly just happens though Domingo tries his best to give it weight. 

Honestly so much of this film is a completely vapid surrounding a figure who should be anything but. Domingo's whole performance strives to not be the former, which on a technical level is impressive. The very expressive mannerisms he grants to Rustin that speaks to his eccentric but also electric personality are just naturally drawn by Domingo despite being overt. Domingo makes himself simply be Rustin in style and makes every eccentric way he presents himself as Rustin expressing himself naturally. The mannerisms are consistent and do amplify his character, in a way where we see how his big personality enlivens many but also is questioned by others, including those with most of the same goals. Domingo unfortunately isn't typically tasked with much after he crafted this characterization. We have two basic scenes repeated ad nauseam, the first type of scene are those where we see Rustin as the activist. These scenes are all pretty similar where someone has an idea or is being dismissed only for Rustin to come in to encourage the idea or to challenge that dismissiveness with his powerful candor. As much as these scenes suffer from just how little genuine detail is in there, or insight into the relationships of the people being "activist", Domingo is consistently effective in them. The reason being he does bring that energy even if selling the same idea again, the sense of passion, the positive manner of the man, but also the conviction towards his cause are all illustrated in Domingo's performance. Unfortunately these scenes rarely let Domingo go to the next step. We have minor variations, such as a scene of a spirited delivery of explaining how his group of police officer activists must behave, Domingo playing it almost as a preacher expressing enlightenment when describing the methods. We also have the occasional flashback of him being brutalized in his protests, where again Domingo does convey well the internalized fear of the physical pain believable wrapped within the conviction of his belief still in his performance, showing both the hero and humanity in the moment. Brief though are even these minor variations but Domingo makes use of the opportunities these moments do grant him. 

Where the film underwhelms the most is the depiction of Rustin's homosexuality, which has one of the most horribly written lines of 2023 where Rustin is told by a white activist that he's homosexual because his parents abandoned him as a kid. The "telling" rather than showing here is abysmal because of how unnatural it is among other things, but it also prevents Domingo from depicting Rustin's feelings of abandonment. Now despite the terrible writing there, the film isn't critical of his sexuality, though it also fails to develop it as a meaningful part of the man. We see two key relationships, one with a white man who gave up his own family to be with Rustin and a relationship with another closeted African American activist. Neither relationship has any depth, nor is there any depth to Rustin even being unfaithful to his partner who sacrificed much for him. There are just perfunctory moments of attraction, comfort and conflict. And there's kind of a strange passiveness about Rustin in these scenes as though both the relationship and questionable decisions within the relationship just kind of happen. Domingo does what he can but the simplicity of these scenes leave Domingo with little to work with in terms of engaging character development. Instead Domingo is forced to portray an extremely generalized version of a relationship related to just "caring" about both men rather developing either into anything truly complex or even just honest feeling. Domingo's frankly stuck in these moments because the material just isn't there for him to launch into any direction with his work. He just kind of maintains the same slightly uneasy expression mixed with empathy on his face. It never goes anywhere, and for what was such a fundamental part of the man it feels woefully underserved. I don't put this on Domingo, he plays the note well, it is just an aggressively limited note. He's never bad but it does almost feel like he's waiting to do something much more interesting than what the scenes ever grant him. Of course as underwhelming as these scenes are, it is not as though the activists scenes are inspired, and in away, I would say Domingo has a slight advantage in part of the reason he stands out in these scenes, is because he's the only truly good thing about them. But I won't diminish that because Domingo is charismatic in every one of these scenes, even when selling repetitive material. He's captivating in these moments even when the film is far from it. It only really offers anything new when he sees the NAACP show support for him despite the bad press around him and we see Rustin breakdown over appreciating the support. Again a well performed scene by Domingo in showing just how much the message means to him and letting it out the emotion with the sense of years of feeling ostracized. Even that though only feels like a surface scratch to what could've been explored though, because as much as Domingo sells it, it's not nearly as moving as it should be because the relationships even with the other leaders were so vaguely drawn up until this point. A moment that is a testament to the entirety of Domingo's work, which is always good, but also frustrating because what you see is the opportunity for something special that the film is always missing. In the end Domingo absolutely was the right man for this part, it's just a shame it had to be in this mediocre film.