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O

2001 · TMDB 5.9

Directed by Tim Blake Nelson

Even though he's the only black student at the elite Palmetto Grove Academy, star basketball player Odin James has the adoration of all, including the team's coach and the Dean's beautiful daughter Desi. Odin's troubled friend Hugo, the coach's son, deeply resentful of his father's preference of Odin on and off the court, plots a diabolical scheme to sow the seed of mistrust between O and Desi, setting in motion a disturbing chain of events which erupts into a firestorm of breathtaking intensity.

Why it matters

Tim Blake Nelson transposes Othello to a South Carolina prep school, where jealousy and manipulation curdle into violence. Mekhi Phifer's Odin and Josh Hartnett's Hugo are both victims and architects of the tragedy, and the film never lets either claim innocence.

From When the Camera Refuses to Blink

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