Episode 36 — Rustin (2023) — Dignity, Activism & Identity | Fork Rating

In this episode of Movies I Give a Fork About, AJ revisits Rustin (2023) — the powerful historical drama centered on Bayard Rustin, the civil rights strategist who helped organize the 1963 March on Washington while spending decades pushed into the background of history.

The episode explores why Rustin’s contributions were minimized for so long, how the film handles identity, activism, and political sacrifice, and why Colman Domingo delivers one of the most emotionally authentic performances AJ has seen in years.

AJ also reflects on the emotional loneliness running underneath the film, the difference between understanding someone and recognizing their humanity, and why Rustin feels painfully relevant today.

This is not a flashy Hollywood historical drama. It’s a quieter, deeply human film about dignity, authenticity, sacrifice, and the people history often chooses not to remember.

Spoiler-free as always — because sometimes the most important stories are the ones history almost erased.  

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Hosted by AJ Jones, this podcast cuts through hype, marketing, and awards buzz to answer one simple question:

Is this movie actually worth your time?

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to Movies I Give a Fork About, the podcast where we don't use stars, we use forks. Because not every movie deserves your time. Not every movie earns your emotion. But when one really does, that's when you give a fork. I'm AJ and today's movie is Rustin. After watching Michael, I went back and watched Rustin for the second time. And for me, this is a movie where Coleman Domingo completely locked into place as one of the most powerful actors working today. I had seen him in other performances before, but Rustin was the moment where I stopped watching an actor performing and fully believed I was watching a human being living through every second of what was happening on screen. And that matters because the man he portrays here definitely deserves to be remembered. The movie Rustin tells the story of Bayard Rustin, the civil rights strategist and activist who was instrumental in organizing the 1963 March on Washington. The historic event where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his iconic I Have a Dream speech. And yet for decades, Bayard Rustin's contributions were minimized, sidelined, or outright ignored. Why? Because he was a black, gay man in America during the nineteen fifties and nineteen sixties. This movie does not shy away from that reality at all. Rustin was brilliant, strategic, compassionate, fearless, and constantly treated as politically inconvenient by many of the very people who benefited from his intelligence and leadership. There's an ongoing tension throughout this film where people around him acknowledge his brilliance privately while simultaneously trying to hide him publicly because they feared how America would react to an openly gay black man standing at the forefront of the civil rights movement. And for me, that reality is heartbreaking. And Coleman Domingo's performance is phenomenal, dignified, powerful, funny, wounded, and resilient. There's a humanity in his portrayal that never turns Bayard Rustin into a historical monument. He feels fully alive as a person, flawed, charismatic, stubborn, vulnerable, exhausted, and passionate. And that's what stayed with me most after the movie ended. Not just the politics, not just the history, but the loneliness, the emotional cost of constantly having to defend your right to exist authentically. This film also does an excellent job of showing how movements like this are often built by people history later forgets. We tend to reduce enormous social change into a few famous names and speeches. But the movie Rustin reminds us that behind every iconic movement there are organizers, planners, strategists, negotiators, and people sacrificing their personal lives for something bigger than themselves. Now, if I'm being fair, Rustin is definitely more dialogue-heavy and politically focused than some audiences may expect. This is not a flashy historical drama. It is a character-driven film built around conversations, strategy, relationships, political maneuvering, and the emotional exhaustion that comes from constantly having to fight for your place in rooms you already earned the right to be in. And if you're expecting non-stop emotional crescendos, courtroom style speeches every ten minutes, or big Hollywood rah-rah moments, this is definitely going to feel more quieter and more restrained than anticipated. But for me, I think that restraint works completely in the film's favor, because real activism is often not fucking glamorous. It's meetings, arguments, compromise, planning, negotiation, and often, above all, exhaustion. While repeatedly swallowing your pride for the sake of a larger goal. This movie understands that social movements are not built in one perfect speech. They are built through relentless work behind the scenes by people who often never receive the same recognition as the public-facing figures history chooses to celebrate. And that's part of what makes Bayard Rustin such a compelling central figure here. He is constantly aware that he may never receive public credit for his brilliance because the world around him is uncomfortable with who he is. And that reality hangs almost over every scene in the film. And that emotional undercurrent made the movie hit even harder for me the second time watching it. Because this film trusts the audience to sit with the difficult truths instead of over-dramatizing every moment. And more importantly, it allows Bayard Rustin himself to remain the emotional center of the story instead of turning him into a symbol, a political talking point, or historical lesson detached from his humanity. What hit me hardest watching Rustin wasn't just the injustice of history overlooking Bayard Rustin for so long. It was realizing how many people throughout history have probably been pushed into those same shadows simply because society was uncomfortable with who they loved or how they identified. And that's what makes this movie feel so relevant today. Because at its core, Rustin is asking a very human question. What happens when society decides someone's identity matters more than their humanity? For decades, Bayard Rustin's sexuality made many people unwilling to publicly celebrate the very work they privately relied on. And that is fucking devastating. And this film also made me think about something bigger. If we are unwilling to accept people because of who they love, who they are, or how they experience themselves authentically in this world, what exactly are we fucking doing as a human race? That doesn't mean people can't have confusion, questions, a willingness to learn, and room for conversation. But there is a massive difference between not understanding someone and refusing to recognize their humanity altogether. And Rustin never lets you forget that. More than anything, this movie left me thinking about dignity. The dignity of standing in your truth, even when the world tells you to shrink yourself. The dignity of continuing to fight for justice while personally experiencing discrimination yourself. And the dignity Bayard Rustin deserved while he was alive, not only after history finally caught up with him decades later. So my fork rating for this movie is four and a half out of five forks. Rustin is a powerful, emotionally intelligent film anchored by a career-defining performance from Coleman Domingo. And he was nominated for an Oscar for this performance, male actor in a lead role. In my personal opinion, he should have won, but Killian Murphy got that distinction for Oppenheimer. Rustin is a thoughtful, heartbreaking, and deeply relevant film that is absolutely worth your time. This is one of those movies that reminds you history is not just made up by the people whose names we will remember forever. It is also shaped by the people society tried very hard to erase. And Bayard Rustin deserves to be remembered. And that's today's fork. If you enjoyed this episode, please follow the show and share it with someone who also gives a fork about movies. Until next time, watch boldly, judge honestly, and never be afraid to give a fork.