The White Tiger (2021)

The back story to this movie, which is nominated for an Academy Award in the Best Adapted Screenplay, is off the beaten path. The film is a very dark comedy that could be Scandanavian but isn't. Ramin Bahrani, the Iranian American filmmaker—who both directed and wrote the screenplay for this adaptation of Indian author Aravind Adiga’s 2008 Booker Prize-winning novel—turns his analytical eye upon the global underclass. It is his first cinematic excursion set outside of what is the reality of filmmaking in the United States and set in what is the gorgeous, colorful, and impoverished setting of India. The film is primarily concerned with the divide between the haves and have-nots, the injustice weathered by the latter from the former, and the inciting incident that could finally spark an uprising. Bahrani sticks close to the source material, trusting his lead actor to take us through the lifetime of poverty that could inspire a moment of radicalization, and that fear is warranted. He hardens before our eyes in a performance that moves back and forth between immature recklessness, fury, and swaggering braggadocio. It is this multifaceted quality is key to the intentionally uncomfortable rags-to-riches tension that runs through this, tense to watch, but leaving you with a lot to think about.