Fast Color

Filmmaker Julia Hart’s small-scale post-apocalypse superhero fable centers on twentysomething Ruth (Gugu Mbatha-Raw), who is on the run in an America that has been forced to go back to basics due to a prolonged worldwide drought. Her desperate effort at concealment stems from the fact that she has a unique power, setting off earthquakes whenever she suffers seizures, so government agents and scientists naturally want to find her for experimentation. After nearly being caught, Ruth seeks shelter with her estranged mother Bo (Lorraine Toussaint), who has been raising Ruth’s daughter Lila (Saniyya Sidney) on her remote ranch. When the sheriff (David Strathairn) arrives to warn them that agents are bearing down on the place, this leads to a series of revelations about special powers within the family—most notably the ability to separate matter into individual molecules and then rejoin them into their original forms—that have been passed down from generation to generation, but only in the female line. This peculiar inheritance is only fully explained during a final confrontation with the authorities, after Ruth has seen the aurora-like colors in the sky that apparently represent the full realization of her talents, which brings about an event that presages a new era of hope for humanity. Fast Color is more a fable of female empowerment than a sci-fi thriller, and while the visual effects are effective in a low-key way, the film does wind up feeling a bit tedious and pretentious. Still, this should be considered a strong optional purchase. (F. Swietek)