American Son doesn't really work as a movie. Its theatricality comes across as forced and curiously inert on screen, at close range to the actors, and its conversations about race and policing in particular feel stilted and contrive

American Son possesses considerable power in its premise, while wrestling with the claustrophobic aspects of transferring a stage play to the screen. Ultimately, the subject matter wins out, yielding a flawed but brisk 90-minute Netflix presentation.

Almost all the acting here is pointedly overstated, as if the performers are trying to project past an especially long proscenium.

This no-frills Broadway adaptation should have stayed on stage...