Christopher Demos-Brown's incendiary play about race and the police gets an awkward, stilted film adaptation; While the appearance of a fourth character adds much-needed momentum and another layer in the discussion about race, it comes too late
an intimate, affecting dramatization of a nationwide crisis; any failure to expand into cinema's possibilities is overshadowed by the uniformly strong performances in a four-person cast led by an excellent Kerry Washington
a well-intentioned adaptation of the Broadway show about race in America suffers from unconvincing characters and risible dialogue; The whole movie often feels like a 90-minute SNL sketch with zero laughs
"American Son" has a lot to say that's worth hearing, but the translation to another medium primarily underlines that this one doesn't ideally serve the playwright's message