The Obituary of Tunde Johnson

It doesn't make the most of its time-loop conceit, but this drama nonetheless tackles issues related to LGBTQ+ identity and police brutality with a clear-headedness drawn from love and pain. Indeed, the strangest thing about The Obituary of Tunde Johnson is the fact that Tunde wakes up in the same day every day and more or less shrugs and goes about his day-to-day activities, as if nothing strange were going on. (He seems to consider all of it a hallucination brought on by his medication.) Although perhaps even more striking is that he never seems shaken by the violence he experiences every day; perhaps he's numb to it, or perhaps he just instinctively knows he must keep going, no matter what.

Watching the police scenes repeatedly escalate to bloody conclusions is very harrowing, mainly because theses scenes are simultaneously shocking and heartbreakingly inevitable. No less affecting are the issues surrounding Tunde's relationship and the perpetual fear of alienating both conservative parents -- Soren's father (David James Elliott) is a contentious right-wing TV commentator -- and fair-weather high school friends. Comedy-veteran screenwriter (Head of State, Half Brothers) and creator of Everybody Hates Chris and Are We There Yet? Ali LeRoi makes his feature directing debut with The Obituary of Tunde Johnson, and it's striking, sensual, and deeply felt.