SIFF ‘25 Capsule Review: ‘COLOR BOOK’ Opens a Window into the Specificity of a Widower’s Grief

Rich in both place and emotion, shot in evocative black and white, and scored with delicate precision, Color Book is a heartbreaking tale of grief and perseverance. William Catlett gives a tremendous, pathos-drenched performance as Lucky, a father navigating sudden tragedy, alongside his son Mason (Jeremiah Alexander Daniels), who has Down syndrome, after the loss of their wife and mother in a car accident. Their woe-begotten journey to attend their first baseball game together in Atlanta becomes a soulful odyssey, riddled with the everyday detours of the financially-unstable and the challenges beset by a father and son suddenly jettisoned into a completely new orbit.

At its heart, Color Book captures the quiet panic of parenthood; the impossibility of suddenly raising a child on your own and desperately trying to keep them safe, even as the world spins beyond your control. For Lucky, that quest is all wrapped up in trying to rediscover a sense of normalcy after the color has been drained from their lives—visually echoed in the film’s monochromatic palette and thematically resonant with the Black American experience. Patient, tender, and steeped in lived-in humanity, this emotional feature debut establishes writer-director David Fortune as one to closely watch. (A-)

[READ MORE: All of our coverage of the Seattle International Film Festival ’25.]

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