It is tempting to call Pariah this year’s Precious, since both movies have three major things in common: great acting, great directing and an enormous amount of critical acclaim. Pariah, however, exercises much more restraint than Precious, especially when it comes to cultural or thematic stereotypes. These stereotypes tend to develop in both films unfortunately, due to the fact they are set in worlds that much of the viewing audiences have never seen. Pariah’s strength lies is its ability to cover serious social issues with such deft that one does not consciously realize they are being referenced. The central focus steadily remains upon its main character, Alike (Adepero Oduye), and her dubious relationship with her mother, Audrey (Kim Wayans).
