--- title: "Passing Strange" year: 2009 kind: "film" canonical: "https://film.one/film/passing-strange" fi1m_score: 80 critics_score: 82 critics_reviews: 8 published: "2026-09-19T08:38:52.729495+00:00" updated: "2026-09-19T08:48:13.707333+00:00" region: "US" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Passing Strange (2009) Directed by Spike Lee · 2h 15m · Music **Fi1m score: 80** · Critics 82 from 8 reviews *In a sentence:* A rock concert where the frontman keeps stopping to argue with his twenty-year-old self > Spike Lee’s record of Stew’s Broadway musical is the rare filmed show that beats a good seat in the stalls: cameras on the faces, cuts on the beat, applause left in. It runs long and the cranes show off, but the show is a fine one. ## Synopsis Stew, a musician at a microphone with a guitar, tells the story of a boy he calls Youth (Daniel Breaker), growing up in a middle-class Black household in South Central Los Angeles. His Mother (Eisa Davis) wants him in the Baptist church on Sunday mornings; Youth wants to be an artist. In the choir he meets Mr. Franklin (Colman Domingo), who talks about a world beyond the church, and with Sherry (Rebecca Naomi Jones) and Terry (Chad Goodridge) he starts a punk band. Then he leaves his mother and Los Angeles for Amsterdam to look for what he calls “the real”, and finds Marianna (De’Adre Aziza) and a house full of people pleased to see him. Filmed on Broadway over the show’s final performances. ## Review Stew is a large man in spectacles who stands at the side of the stage with a guitar and tells us about a boy from South Central Los Angeles who wanted to be an artist. The boy is called Youth, he is played by Daniel Breaker, and he is Stew, some thirty years younger, before any of the songs had been written. *Passing Strange* began as a stage musical written by Stew, and Spike Lee has filmed it on Broadway over its final performances. It is one of the few filmed plays we have seen that beats a good seat in the stalls, and we say that having sat through a good many that did not. At 135 minutes it is also a quarter of an hour longer than it needs to be. There is almost no set. A band sits on risers at the back, strips of coloured light hang and blink, and six actors work a lot of bare floor. Youth’s Mother (Eisa Davis) wants him in church; he wants out. He joins a choir run by Mr. Franklin (Colman Domingo), who turns out to have his own doubts, forms a punk band with two friends, and leaves for Amsterdam to look for what he keeps calling “the real”. The four supporting actors play everyone he meets on the way, so Rebecca Naomi Jones, Chad Goodridge and De’Adre Aziza each turn up three times as three different people, and part of the pleasure is watching them not bother to hide it. Matthew Libatique shoots with several cameras kept at or a little below the actors’ eye line, so faces fill the frame and you can see the sweat come through the make-up by the second act. Barry Alexander Brown cuts hard on the beat during the songs and then slows right down for the talk, so that a joke is allowed to land on the face of the person hearing it. The best of it is simple. When Stew stops addressing us and turns to Breaker, Lee puts both of them in the frame and holds, and the film becomes what the show always was underneath the guitars: an older man trying to get a word in with a younger one who is not listening. Lee does not always trust that. Every so often a camera swings up on a crane over the heads of the audience and swoops towards the stage, and each time it reminded us that we were watching a recording of a room we were not in. There are cuts to people in the stalls laughing or wiping their eyes, which tell us what to feel about a scene that was managing perfectly well on its own. These are small things and there are perhaps a dozen of them. They are the only places where the director is more visible than the show. The cast is uniformly good and Domingo is better than that. His Mr. Franklin is a soft-voiced choirmaster with a secret; his later parts include a Dutch host and a German performance artist who shouts, and he makes all three men seem to have been born on the stage he is standing on. Davis gives Mother a cardigan and a telephone and does most of her work in the pauses between Youth’s excuses. Breaker plays Youth as gangly, pleased with himself and a little tiring, which is the point, because Stew is hard on the boy he was and wants us to be too. The second half moves to Berlin, and we will not say much about it except that the satire of the art scene there goes on longer than the joke can bear, and that the show is sharper when it stops laughing at Youth and starts asking what he did to the people he left. The scene that got at us comes much earlier, when Youth tells Mother he is leaving Los Angeles. Davis plays it without raising her voice, and Libatique stays on her while Breaker talks, so we watch the news arrive on a face that has decided not to show it. It moved us more than we expected from a boy doing the thing every boy in every musical does, and what did it was not a song but a woman being polite. Lee is a director whose own films rarely sit still, and here he mostly sits still, which was the right call and the harder one. Watch it with the sound up and with someone who has never heard of it. They will be arguing with Youth by the interval. *Fi1m score 80, published 19 September 2026.* ## What the critics say Every one of the eight reviews is positive, and the praise gathers in the same places. Critics like the songs, described as catchy, witty and quirky, and they like the performers, whose work on stage is called remarkable and electric. The coming-of-age story, about a young Black man’s artistic self-discovery, is found moving and intelligent rather than merely a frame for the numbers. Most also credit Spike Lee’s multicamera filming of the final Broadway performances with catching the show’s energy, and The New York Times goes further, finding the film tighter than the stage production. The reservations, such as they are, concern Lee’s direction. Time Out calls it overly reverential and a little uninspired, and Slant Magazine finds some of the crane shots a distraction from a record that otherwise reproduces the stage experience well. The spread is narrow, with the coolest notices still recommending the film, and nobody questions the material itself. ### Reviews we read (8) - **RogerEbert.com**, Roger Ebert (90/100, inferred): The critic calls it one of the best musicals seen, praising the depth of the story, intelligent music, and Spike Lee's skillful recording of the performance. [Read](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/passing-strange-2009) - **The AV Club**, Noel Murray (A-): Spike Lee skillfully documents the final Broadway performances with artful camera work and editing that matches the music's energy. The review praises the catchy, quirky score, the performers' remarkable work, and the moving, self-reflective coming-of-age story. [Read](https://www.avclub.com/passing-strange-1798206808) - **The Hollywood Reporter** (90/100, inferred): Spike Lee's film deftly captures the exuberance of the Broadway musical and affirms its theme of creative discovery. It highlights the stirring music, fine performances, and energetic celebration of artistic discovery through a dynamic multicamera setup. [Read](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-reviews/film-review-passing-strange-92761/) - **The New York Times**, A.O. Scott (Critic's Pick): The critic finds the filmed version of the stage musical even stronger than the Broadway production, noting how the direction tightens the narrative and immerses viewers in both the story and the performers' transformations. [Read](https://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/21/movies/21passing.html) - **Variety**, Dennis Harvey (80/100, inferred): The critic describes it as a first-rate multicamera record of a terrific show that delights musical fans with its witty writing, winning performances, and catchy songs. [Read](https://variety.com/2009/film/markets-festivals/passing-strange-1200473158/) - **Slant Magazine** (70/100, inferred): The filmed performance is a worthy record of the smart, engaging musical that blends rock concert energy with a rich character portrait of identity and self-deception. Spike Lee's direction mostly recreates the stage experience but sometimes distracts with unnecessary crane shots, though the poignant ending epiphany stands out. [Read](https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/passing-strange/) - **Time Out**, Stephen Garrett (4 out of 5 stars): The critic finds the concert film expertly captures the musical's rousing and soulful energy through its vivid cast and performances, but notes the direction is overly reverential and somewhat uninspired. They single out the electric ensemble and the way the recording preserves the production's potent essence. [Read](https://www.timeout.com/movies/passing-strange-1) - **Collider**, Thomas Butt (75/100, inferred): The critic notes that Spike Lee's filmed version of the stage musical honors its theatrical roots while adding subtle cinematic flair through editing and camerawork. It singles out the eclectic music and emotional performances for praise as a bold take on Black experience and self-discovery. [Read](https://collider.com/spike-lee-passing-strange-musical-adaptation/) ## Details - **Director:** Spike Lee - **Director:** Spike Lee - **Writer:** Stew - **Cinematography:** Matthew Libatique - **Editor:** Barry Alexander Brown - **Production design:** Barry Alexander Brown - **Producer:** Steve Klein - **Cast:** Stew as Narrator; De'Adre Aziza as Edwina / Marianna / Sudabey; Daniel Breaker as Youth; Eisa Davis as Mother; Colman Domingo as Mr.Franklin / Joop / Mr. Venus; Chad Goodridge as Rev. Jones / Terry / Christophe / Hugo; Rebecca Naomi Jones as Sherry / Renata / Desi - **Runtime:** 2h 15m - **Release (the US):** 21 August 2009 - **Genres:** Music - **Trailer:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5V7jjjshvBE ## Where to watch in the US - Pluto TV: free *Checked 2026-09-19.* Also available in: GB, IE, US. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country. ## If you liked this - *Stop Making Sense* (1984): The other filmed concert that understands a face matters more than a stage. - *Wattstax* (1973): Los Angeles, gospel, soul and anger in one long afternoon, with Richard Pryor between songs. - *Hedwig and the Angry Inch* (2001): Another rock musical about Berlin, identity and a narrator who cannot let go. - *Hamilton* (2020): The polished version of the same idea; watch how much it hides that Lee shows. - *David Byrne's American Utopia* (2020): Lee films another musician on a bare stage, and again mostly keeps out of the way. --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/passing-strange