DIRECTOR DEE REES
New Movie: The Last Thing He Wanted
Filmmaker Dee Rees first made waves with her feature film debut, Pariah. The movie, she describes as semi-autobiographical, follows a 17-year old African-American girl who learns to embrace her lesbian identity. Pariah had its world premiere at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival, where it won the award for Excellence in Cinematography. The movie established Rees as an indie director to watch. She followed up Pariah with the HBO project Bessie. It follows the career of blues singer Bessie Smith from her years as a struggling artist to the icon we remember today. The movie starred Queen Latifah as the titular Bessie. It quickly became one of HBO’s most-watched films ever and won 4 Emmy awards.
After Bessie, Rees directed the 2017 drama Mudbound, adapted from the Hillary Jordan novel of the same name. The post World War II drama tells the story of two families – one white, one black – in rural Mississippi. Mudbound features a powerhouse cast including Carey Mulligan, Garrett Hedlund, Jason Clarke, Jason Mitchell, Jonathan Banks and Mary J. Blige. Like Pariah, it premiered at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival and quickly picked up by Netflix. It was a success and netted Rees an Oscar nomination, making her the first (and only) black woman to be nominated in the best adapted screenplay category.
Continuing her Netflix partnership after the success of Mudbound, Rees directed The Last Thing He Wanted, adapted from the Joan Didion book of the same name. The movie stars Anne Hathaway as a D.C. journalist who finds herself the subject of her own story when she runs an errand for her dying father (Willem Dafoe). The Last Thing He Wanted had its world premiere on January 27, 2020, at the Sundance Film Festival. It got a limited theatrical release on Valentine’s Day and is now streaming on Netflix.
