Subtlety is a lovely tool that, when used effectively, can transform a good film into a great film. In Mariama Diallo’s film “Master,” streaming on Amazon Prime, I felt like she was afraid to fully lean into the subtlety that she was setting up in her film, instead boosting it with a less satisfying ghost story.
The movie bounces between two Black women, Gail Bishop (Regina Hall) and Jasmine Moore (Zoe Renee). Gail has recently been promoted to house master at the elite Ancaster University, while Jasmine is beginning her freshman year at the school. It is clear that the overwhelming majority of the students and faculty are white, so both are struggling to find their place in a space filled with microaggressions, like a white girl handing Jasmine a towel to clean up a spill and white colleagues exclaiming that Gail provided “flavor” at their party.
But aside from the small annoyances that both endure, there is a greater menace on the campus. There is the legend of a witch that roams the university, causing the occupants of room 302 to hang themselves, the very room where Jasmine is housed. And the haunting extends beyond that room, as Gail uncovers ghosts of her own at the master quarters.
The performances in the movie are fantastic. Regina Hall embodies quiet rage and exhaustion as she tries to sort out how to best use her position to help the few other women of color at the university, without seeming as though she is giving them special treatment. Zoe Renee does a great job as a wide-eyed freshman dealing with the assumption that she is a charity case from the inner city rather than an honor student from the suburbs. In the performances, the subtlety is played beautifully.
Where I thought things got muddled was in the storytelling. The story indicates that the real ghosts are the vestiges of racism that exist, from minor issues to more overt expressions like a burning cross and a noose on Jasmine’s door. But there seem to be actual ghosts and witches at the school, and I think that gets in the way of the more nuanced point Diallo is trying to make, especially when the actual specters never get a good pay-off. The story zigs and zags a little too much to make as strong a point as she may have hoped.
In her speech at the beginning of the year, Gail Bishop is trying to convey that the students at Ancaster are going to make the university their home by saying, “There is no returning to what came before.”
I believe Diallo is telling us that when we begin to see racism, we can’t go back to ignoring it. Unfortunately, instead of focusing on the genuinely frightening aspects of racism from the benign to the overt, she gives us a half-hearted ghost story that muddles the full-throated statement she is making.
ALISE CHAFFINS is a Morgantown writer who loves movies and sharing her opinions. Find more at MacGuffin or Meaning on Substack.
