Sundance 2024 Review: Rob Peace

A mathematical genius growing up in an impoverished section of Newark, Rob Peace is determined to prove the innocence of his father who has been convicted of murder while fulfilling his academic potential at Yale and community responsibilities back home.

Even at the age of 10, Rob Peace had an ability with numbers that had adults using him as a human calculator; he also had a great love for his wayward father who believed that as long as you stood up for your own people that you were pointed in the right direction.  This belief gets tested when the patriarch is convicted of murder and his son is determined to prove his innocence.  Thus begins the struggle for Peace between severing the umbilical cord attached to where he came from and pursuing a pathway to medical greatness with Yale being the first step.

Anything starring Chiwetel Ejiofor is worth taking note of as he is definitely a generational acting talent and he does double duty as the director and imprisoned father.  Playing the lead role as the adult Rob Peace is Jay Will but the true star is Jelani Dacres as Young Rob as there is a soulfulness to his performance that is endearing and heartbreaking at the same time.  As much as naturalism prevails in the imagery, there is a stylized quality where the colour red takes over that casts an element of danger over moments of celebration.  The prevailing theme in the voice-over is being able to bring order to chaos but is this actually possible or do you simply have to go with the flow?

The story feels conventional but the outcome is not the one you would be expecting as what seems to be a feel-good tale of talent triumphing over societal adversity becomes a warning with Peace’s mother believing that the way to move social justice forward is by blazing your own path and people having to take notice, while his father preaches that is only obtained by everyone looking out for each other.  It is this parental conflict that clouds the decision-making process that leads the budding genius to be on the wrong end of the cause-and-effect equation.

The 2023 Sundance Film Festival takes place January 19–29, 2023, in person and online, and for more information visit sundance.org.

Trevor Hogg is a freelance video editor and writer who currently resides in Canada; he can be found at LinkedIn.