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The Guardian - UK

Entertainment

Arifa Akbar

Retrograde review – toxicity meets integrity in exceptional Sidney Poitier drama

Sidney Poitier Ryan Calais Cameron Hollywood Marc Brenner Paul Robeson NBC

Sidney (Ivanno Jeremiah), Bobby (Ian Bonar), and Parks (Daniel Lapaine) in Retrograde. — Mamet-like exchanges … Sidney (Ivanno Jeremiah), Bobby (Ian Bonar) and Parks (Daniel Lapaine) in Retrograde. Photograph: Marc Brenner

Two white men are having a frank exchange of views on Sidney Poitier’s skin colour as they wait for him to arrive at an NBC studio office. It is 1955 and the 28-year-old actor (Ivanno Jeremiah) stands on the cusp of his Hollywood breakthrough.

“He’s Black-Black,” says Bobby (Ian Bonar), loosely based on Poitier’s real-life ally and screenwriter Robert Alan Arthur, who has written a leading film role for him. “Oh shit double Black,” jeers NBC’s snake-like lawyer, Parks (Daniel Lapaine).

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