Name: 'Black Panther' writer, 'Westworld,' 'Moonlight' stars team up for Oakland-set Netflix story
Brand: sfgate.com
SKU: sfgate-com-63
Availability: OnlineOnly

critic

'Black Panther' writer, 'Westworld,' 'Moonlight' stars team up for Oakland-set Netflix story

preview

This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigateIt’s twilight somewhere in Oakland, and Jahkor sits in his car while he rehearses lyrics he wrote for one of his hip-hop verses. Then he gets out, tip-toeing between parked cars and houses. On his way, he passes an open window, from which flows a garbled alto gospel melody. Then, a backyard where young girls make up a dance routine to a Bay Area slap.The beginning of that scene at the start of Netflix’s Oakland-set “All Day and a Night” sees its main character, played by Ashton Sanders (“Moonlight”), work through three distinct soundscapes in just one passing moment. The mise en scène exemplifies Oakland’s multitudes, which director, writer and Bay Area native Joe Robert Cole aimed to make as authentic as possible.“I wanted to kind of capture the sense of humanity that exists in underserved communities, or communities in Oakland,” Cole tells SFGATE. “This idea of Ashton traveling through humanity and giving us a tour...&nbsp; establishing the setting of the film and the fact that music exists in this world in high volume.”This world onscreen looks and sounds authentic. BART trains faintly whistle in the background. Jahkor’s father J.D., played by Jeffrey Wright (“Westworld”), wears a Ronnie Lott jersey. There’s a boisterous party at a . And the film features familiar tracks by P-Lo, Mac Dre, Kool John, E-40, Mistah F.A.B., Too $hort, H.E.R., Tia Nomore and Mozzy (Cole’s favorite). There’s even a well-timed dig at Blackhawk, an ultra affluent residential corner of Contra Costa County.It’s a calculated effort. Cole, who also co-wrote the Oakland-tied Marvel epic “Black Panther” with Ryan Coogler, needed the Oakland in this project to seem real.“The Bay Area and Oakland have a particular dialect, a particular way people carry themselves,” he says. “I wanted to find ways to create a tapestry of that in this world so that people can distinguish this world from a different other one. I wanted those little touchstones that would differentiate this city and this world from other urban environments.”But to get that aesthetic, Cole had to teach the film’s cast and crew about what it means to grow up in Oakland.“I did a whole document with tons of links to videos of just people from the Bay, people from Oakland just talking,” Cole says. “I tried to give people music, just tons of information to be able to kind of root themselves in the specificity of the world. I did that for my actors as well, but they did their own work … Jeffrey [Wright] really embodied the mannerisms, demeanor and the dialect of a guy like his character, like J.D. in Oakland.”Wright’s character J.D. is a rough-edged patriarch mired by drug addiction and headed to jail for a serious crime while his son is still a young boy.&nbsp; Jahkor's childhood memories of J.D. mostly involve his father being angry and violent.Wright put in a lot of time to make sure he went beyond the script to get J.D.’s way of speaking right, calling the challenge of learning about language and tones specific to Oakland “exciting.” When he arrived in the Bay Area, he explored, looking for places where he could just interact authentically with residents.“One of the things that I enjoy about acting is the opportunity to explore language, dialect and the cultural music of words,” Wright tells SFGATE. “There's a very specific music, like linguistic music, that is played in the Bay Area. I just love trying to find those notes. So for me one of the things that I try to do in situations like that is go to places where I can hear that music. So I go to the barbershop, hang out, you know, talk s—. There was a barbecue joint, I would go and order food, talk more s—, and just kind of notate all the different sounds and phrases and things that I would hear and try to lay them into the performance.”Lead Ashton Sanders plays Jahkor, an aspiring rapper at a crossroads, trying to navigate personal relationships and create a career trajectory for himself as the lucrative and dangerous pull of street crime begins to engulf him. Shortly after the events of that opening scene, he finds himself in the same prison as his father.“Jahkor was the type of character that I haven't had, that I haven't done before,” Sanders says. “I wanted to dive into that and I thought that the writing was brilliant and it was so raw and authentic and gritty and real.”Jahkor’s “still a boy in a lot of ways,” Cole adds, and he can be reckless. But this is a movie that aims to examine all sides of its characters.“The story for me is trying to humanize a character and a community, and people who we often struggle to see the humanity [in],” Cole says. “I think finding authenticity speaks to the humanity of the people there, so a lot of my decisions were rooted in leaning into the humanity of the characters.”Wright describes “All Day and a Night” as the third in a “personal trilogy” of film projects that explore the causes and effects of mass incarceration. (The other two films are 2018’s “All Rise” and 2019’s “O.G.”)Working with imprisoned men and hearing their stories gave Wright an opportunity to gain insight into what led them there, and informed his portrayal of J.D.“They describe experiences with parental drug abuse, parental abuse, parental neglect,” Wright recalls. “J.D. was an opportunity to kind of explore that and lay that on the table. He's not the sole reason that Jahkor winds up where he is, but he's a significant reason — he is a part of his ongoing cycle that he passes on to his son. I thought that was a meaningful phenomenon to dive into as a storyteller.”And Jahkor’s story is complex. It’s not about retribution or redemption, really. It’s about family and loyalty.“It's definitely not the typical story,” Sanders says. “But I do think you find a hope within [Jahkor’s] story, definitely.”It’s also about Oakland. And in a way, “All Day and a Night” was made real by Oakland, too.“We were very fortunate to have people allow us to shoot in their homes, their establishments and their churches,” Cole explains. “We had a lot of locations because I really wanted to create that tapestry of what this place is. In a way where if you're from the Bay Area, you recognize that — that caretaking for the film to feel true and authentic.”“All Day and a Night” premieres on Netflix May 1, 2020.Alyssa Pereira is an SFGate digital editor. Email: | Twitter:

This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigateIt’s twilight somewhere in Oakland, and Jahkor sits in his car while he rehearses lyrics he wrote for one of his hip-hop verses. Then he gets out, tip-toeing between parked cars and houses. On his way, he passes an open window, from which flows a garbled alto gospel melody. Then, a backyard where young girls make up a dance routine to a Bay Area slap.The beginning of that scene at the start of Netflix’s Oakland-set “All Day and a Night” sees its main character, played by Ashton Sanders (“Moonlight”), work through three distinct...

public

Alyssa Pereira

alyspereira

News. Culture. Sports. Opinion. All the journalism that matters from San Francisco & the Bay Area. Newsletters: http://sfgate.com/newsletters IG: http://instagram.com/sfgate

'Black Panther' writer, 'Westworld,' 'Moonlight' stars team up for Oakland-set Netflix story

No article scores yet.

CRITIC REVIEWS

PUBLIC REVIEWS