Luce

Excitement and prejudice blend together in Julius Onah’s razor-sharp Haneke-inspired, star-packed and critically acclaimed drama.

Luce (Kelvin Harrison Jr.) is one of the school’s brightest students. A stylish, charming and seemingly carefree boy adopted from Eritrea. The disciplined teacher (Octavia Spencer) suspects that he is not so perfect, but is prone to violence. The caring middle-class parents (Naomi Watts and Tim Roth) get pulled in. Is Luce actually a sociopath, a chameleon, or just an innocently accused kid, a promising smooth operator? The plot thickens. Based on a play of the same name, this wonderful drama sheds new light on what is expected of a young black man in America today. The role given to you by parents and society is almost never the right one.

• Niclas Goldberg