Pariah ★★★★☆

" A wonderful example of independent filmmaking"

Written and directed by Dee Rees as an expansion of her Sundance Film Festival short film, Pariah is a refreshingly natural film which explores themes of sexuality and acceptance without ever pandering to generic plot holes and melodrama of similar teen dramas.

Pariah opens in a seedy back alley strip bar where Khia’s “My Neck, My Back (Lick it), with is exploitative lyrics and earth shattering bass reverberates at an ear damaging decibel level. Amongst this deeply misogynistic setting we join two effeminate looking young men thrusting dollar bills at the scantily clad dancers aiming to please them. It isn’t until we join them later on the night bus home we discover these soft skinned young men are actually teenage girls in masculine attire and the horribly lit bar was in fact a lesbian nightclub.

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