Social thrillers are gripping, but only when their central theme is adequately explored and nailed. Get Out is one example of how to present the social divide between Black and White Americans within a horror context.
Luce, released in 2019, also tries to explore the topics of racial inequality in a way that makes viewers question every character and event.
The film stars Naomi Watts and Tim Roth as Amy and Peter Edgar, Kelvin Harrison Jr. plays Luce Edgar, and Octavia Spencer portrays Harriet Wilson. Peter and Amy adopt a child, Luce, from war-torn Eritrea and bring him to America. But one day in class, he writes a disturbing essay that pits him against his teacher, Harriet.
What begins after that is a disturbing back-and-forth between Harriet and Luce. In the film, Harriet accuses Luce of bringing illegal fireworks to school and starts a tale of misunderstanding, misinformation, and allegations.
It’s hard to determine whose side to take and who is right or wrong in this film. However, there’s a method to this madness, and that’s visible in the movie.
Luce is a film that prompts audiences to check their implicit bias because almost every character judges each other based on the stereotypes allotted to their race, sex, and status. Harriet stereotypes Luce as a model black student, while others consider him dangerous due to his Eritrean background.
But he also seems like an average teenager subject to assumptions. So who is right? There isn’t a clear answer because no one in the film is objective.
Luce Movie Explained
As the film’s name implies, the major events are about Luce, the titular character. The incident that triggers everything is a school assignment. Luce has to turn in an essay where he has to write from the viewpoint of a historical figure. He chose Frantz Fanon, who famously argued that violence is the only way to overcome colonialism.
After reading about him espousing violence, his teacher, Harriet, becomes concerned since Luce was a child soldier before getting adopted. She also tells Luce’s mother that dangerous and illegal fireworks were in her son’s bag. After hearing this, Peter and Amy, Luce’s adoptive parents, are unsettled.
Later on, Luce confronts Harriet and accuses her of tokenizing him as a star black student. He also says that she singles out other types of students, like Stephanie Kim, who was sexually assaulted in part while drunk, as an example of a woman suffering in silence.
The next day, Harriet and Luce talk about his paper. Kelvin Harrison’s character acknowledges his inciting wording but also mentions that he disavowed his belief in violence.
Also, he points out that he just did what was asked of him. During the conversation, he talks about fireworks, and Harriet interprets it as a threat. So she informs his father. The parents confront Luce about it, but he denies it all. Amy isn’t sure what to think, but Peter is confident his son is lying.
Stephanie Kim meets Amy and reveals that she and Luce used to date. She also talks about being sexually assaulted by multiple boys at a party but clarifies that Luce wasn’t involved. Instead, he was the one who stepped in and comforted her after she woke up.
A few days later, Harriet’s home gets vandalized after her mentally disturbed sister, Rosemary, causes a scene in the school by stripping naked.
Rosemary gets tasered and taken by the police. Luce records this and shows this to his parents. He presumably keeps this as evidence of how Harriet might be biased against him. After Harriet’s house gets broken into, Stephanie meets her to tell her that Luce sexually assaulted her too. After hearing this, Octavia Butler’s teacher informs the principal, who organizes a meeting with Luce and his parents.
Luce tries to prove his innocence with the help of a video that shows where he was at the time of the incident. But Harriet aggressively questions him, making both his parents instinctively take his side.
When Harriet goes to get Stephanie, she finds that the girl has left. So the principal accepts Amy’s side arguing for her son and ends the meeting even though Harriet still sides with Stephanie.
At night, fireworks explode inside Harriet’s desk, resulting in a massive fire. This makes the principal put her on leave till an investigation is done. After learning about the incident, Amy realizes the fireworks in the house are all gone.
Peter is suspicious of Luce, but Amy still sticks up for her son. Luce then goes to Harriet’s house with flowers because he feels he is responsible for her losing her employment.
Here an exciting conversation happens. Luce accuses her of stereotyping him as a model black student. But Harriet says it wasn’t her but America that did the stereotyping, and he’s the exception. She also fires back at Luce by saying that he was using his other black classmates to do his bidding so that he wouldn’t get caught. Luce doesn’t deny anything but says these are different things.
After this, Luce leaves. Amy trails her son and finds him sleeping with Stephanie in a hideout. He spots his mother from the window but doesn’t react. When Luce returns home, he reconciles with her over the fireworks.
In the ending scene, he gives a speech where he thanks his parents for adopting him and praises America for giving him a chance to start over. But when later on he goes jogging, his face gets contorted with anger.
So the film asks audiences to consider the circumstances from the point-of-view of every character. Is Harriet right in her concerns? Is the paranoia of Amy and Peter guaranteed? Did Luce assault Stephanie? Was Luce deliberately going after Harriet? There’s no clear answer because everything is ambiguous.
What Is the Meaning Behind Luce?
The film asks several questions, and the best way to answer them is first to look at what the titular character is facing. Luce, the character, deals with speculative assumptions arising from stereotypes. But he isn’t alone; Stephanie gets stereotyped due to her sex and race, and DeShaun gets stereotyped due to his race. But the film does enough to make audiences understand that they are more than those speculations.
For example, Luce might be the model minority, but he smokes weed, attends parties, has sex, manipulates his schoolmates, lies, and breaks the rules. So he’s just like other teens. But since he’s from a war-torn country and wrote about a historical character advocating for violence, he appears dangerous to many characters. But are their assumptions correct?
After all, we don’t know his Eritrean name, and neither do we know much about his background in the country. This is where looking at the subtext is essential. The film seemingly wants its viewers to stereotype Luce, but while doing so, audiences must realize they are picking which character’s side to support.
So the film is majorly about stereotyping and implicit bias that leads one to jump to unfounded assumptions. Even Harriet stereotypes Luce because she feels he is a good representative of her race, while she sidelines DeShaun because she feels he isn’t. Every character is flawed, and no one is good or bad in this film.
What Was the Point of Luce Movie?
At a glance, Luce is a convoluted film. The movie doesn’t give clear answers, but it posits many questions. It makes viewers think about which character they have chosen to trust in a situation, which is the film’s point.
Every character in the movie suffers from internal bias. Harriet wants Luce to be a positive ambassador of her race; she also thinks Stephanie is a damsel in distress and that DeShaun is a poor representative for black people.
However, these characters are not as they seem on the surface. Even Luce’s parents stereotype him and begin believing Harriet. So the film at the end asks- who do you trust to tell the correct and unbiased story? The actual answer is no one.
Did Luce Assault Stephanie?
Did Luce Assault Stephanie? This is the film’s most important question because Stephanie changes her story twice. In her conversation with Amy, she says that Luce actually protected her, while she speaks to Harriet that he was the one who assaulted her.
So what is the truth? He probably didn’t assault her because she slept with him. However, is it possible that Luce manipulated her to sleep with him?
After all, post the assault at the party, she seemed vulnerable. Or is Stephanie actually manipulating everyone because she is biased against Luce too? Or does she not remember what exactly happened at the party? The answer isn’t clear. But it looks like Luce didn’t sexually assault her because he had video proof of where he was that night.
Luce is streaming on Hulu.
So what do you think of the film?
Did Luce sexually assault Stephanie? Or is Stephanie lying? Did Luce actually bring the fireworks? Is Harriet right in stereotyping DeShaun and Luce?
Let us know in the comments below.
