Parents' Guide to The Dutchman

A curious and not entirely persuasive experience, this surreal thriller nevertheless tackles themes that are both uncomfortable and relevant in an unsettling style that manages to captivate. Based on Amiri Baraka's 1964 play, The Dutchman begins with a quote from Carl Jung: "Who looks outside, dreams; Who looks inside, awakens." Filmmaker Andre Gaines runs with this idea, creating a strange, unreal tone for the movie, with backgrounds sliding apart and reflections behaving in unexpected ways. Dr. Amiri keeps appearing and disappearing, too, and clips from the previous 1967 film adaptation of the play are also used.

All of this is effectively used to underline some of the movie's more obvious themes, one of which is Clay walking the fine line between remaining true to his Black identity and assimilating into White culture. Another involves Lula and her mysteriously sinister intentions; she's racist in a cruel, manipulative, and provocative way. In some of the movie's most uneasy scenes, Lula speaks to the elite Black crowd at the party (she appears to be the only White person there) and acts shocked at the prospect of a Black man being a neurosurgeon. Other aspects of the movie are a little overcooked, such as Lula eating a sinful red apple, or the doctor mentioning that Clay's name is both a name and a reference to a malleable material ("my man of Clay"). In any case, Gaines' main goal seems to be to show that The Dutchman is still relevant in 2026, and in that, he succeeds.