The monsters on campus aren’t quite as scary as those in Black ChristmasOder Sorority Row, but they’re nonetheless an insidious presence in Master, as discriminatory remnants at a tony longtime girls’ school’s past continue to haunt the lives of modern students. Mariama Diallo’s first feature is a film about women that has an air of intelligence, class, and noble purpose. It stands out from other films about women. “haunted” anything. Despite its intelligent dialogue and sometimes funny approach, the film can be preachy and obvious in making its points. It will appeal to the like-minded, but may feel heavy-handed or familiar to others. Tonight’s Sundance Film Festival debut in the U.S. Dramatic Competition section MasterAmazon Prime subscribers will be able to travel the globe with them.
Diallo’s short film Hair WolfSundance 2018 won her a jury award. Her most recent short was, White Devil, hasn’t been heard from since it showed at Toronto last year. The new feature featured a majority of women as cast and crew. The exteriors were shot in Vassar College. It was an ex-all-female school which very closely resembles Ancaster College.
Professor Gail Bishop (the redoubtable Regina Hall) is at the heart of everything. She has been a long-standing academic and now holds the distinction of being promoted to Master of the residence. Enthusiastic and excited by her new opportunity, which has never been accorded to any Black woman before, she’s also nervous about it, and with good reason, to be sure.
Jasmine Moore (Zoe Renee) is a typically upbeat and excited freshman, as well she might be except for the fact that she’s been assigned to the “haunted”Room has a long history of suicides. It started with the death of the first Black woman admitted to the school many years ago. For reasons of her own, literature professor Liv Beckman (Amber Gray) has it out for Jasmine and fails her in class, which predictably sends the student’s morale plummeting.
The school, which is highly sought after by many, is at best a highly malevolent institution that threatens or even eliminates people not belonging to the white upper class. On the plus side, Diallo has a fair amount of fun with the ironies related to the institution’s past and present, and the main performers nicely handle some of zingers that the writer packs into her dialogue.
All the same, once the gates are opened, the writer-director seems required, both by nature of the film’s format and its ideological arguments, to take the story to its limits, which doesn’t really feel like a proper fit even in this film’s purposely exaggerated scenario. As the situation becomes more dire, Diallo’s tale travels beyond the fanciful to the outer limits; some will no doubt find this all perfectly plausible, while others will see a dramatic derailment.
Not helping matters is Diallo’s uncertain control of the comic tone, which starts well but becomes increasingly inconsistent as the story charts a course for deeper waters. This is a ghost story, and it begs the question: are we stuck with them forever? Or can they be cast away eventually? Despite Diallo’s humor and joking, she insinuates the past is always there, and she uses this sad period of history to support her argument. But is it possible? MasterThis can be enjoyed even though it is. But only to a certain extent.