‘Dutchman’ was originally a play by Amiri Baraka (A Fable 1971, Bulworth 1998), depicting white-black relations in the 1960s in the allegory of a flirtatious white woman called Lula manipulating and abusing a black man called Clay. At least that is the surface-level reading of it. The original play delved deeper into double consciousness, sociology, and the reasons it is called ‘Dutchman’ in the first play (as in ‘Flying Dutchman’, the notorious ghost ship).
It did get a film adaptation in 1967, just three years after its stage debut, but after nearly 60 years, the play was long due for another cinematic adaptation. Set up by Cinemation Studios and Washington Square Films in 2023 thanks to an interim agreement during that year’s SAG-AFTRA strike, Writer-Director and Producer Andre Gaines (Children of the Corn 2020, The One and Only Dick Gregory 2021) put together a fresh adaptation with The Dutchman, with Qasim Basir (A Boy. A Girl. A Dream 2018, To Live and Die and Live 2023) on co-writing duties.
The movie was finished by early 2025 and debuted at that year’s South by Southwest Film & TV Festival, before gaining distributors that November in Rogue Pictures and Inaugural Entertainment. Just in time for a theatrical release on January 2, 2026. Only it does more than just adapt the play line by line.
Clay (Andre Holland: Selma 2014, Moonlight 2016) is now a businessman struggling through marital woes with his wife, Kaya (Zazie Beetz: Deadpool 2 2018, The Harder They Fall 2021), when he comes across Lula (Kate Mara: Shooter 2007, The Martian 2015) on the subway. She uses his identity issues against him, seemingly knowing more about him than he does, to get her way. However, there seems to be more going on behind the scenes than either of them knows.
The original play was only about an act and a bit long, while the new movie runs about 1 hour and 28 minutes. On top of giving Clay marital strife, a friend (Aldis Hodge: Die Hard: With a Vengeance 1995, Black Adam 2022), and a therapist- Stephen McKinley Henderson (Fences 2016, Civil War 2024) as Dr Amiri (get it?), it also gets meta rather. Dr Amiri gives Clay a book about the play to study, the 1967 movie plays on a TV screen in a shop window, and a host of supporting characters, like a mystic lady (Sally Stewart: Aurora 2023, Parasomnia 2025), warn Clay about Lula.
Even Dr Amiri appears to have some control over events, assembling figures on a model stage while knowing who and what Lula is (“Bitch” is putting it mildly). ‘Dutchman’ does not just exist as a play and a movie within The Dutchman, The Dutchman is also a sequel to ‘Dutchman’, where Clay has background supporters confronting Lula, telling her he is “different” and she “will not have her way”.
‘Dutchman’ was a dour play for dour times, so The Dutchman aims to be more knowing and defiant. Clay is still malleable (hence his name), but he is not alone. There are figures willing to help him and retort against Lula’s words. Whether he can see that and turn her game against her is another matter. As he says, what difference does it make whether he does everything right or wrong when the Lulas of the world will take everything anyway?
But one person’s expanded edition can be another person’s bloat. The 4th wall-breaking can be clever, serving as post-modern commentary on Baraka’s work. But for others, it muddies the original message within ‘Dutchman’ for a plainer, ‘control your narrative’ moral. It can affect the tension, too. The first half can really set viewers on edge as Lula sets her trap, and Clay’s reputation, friendships, and marriage get put on the line.
But the likes of Warren and Kaya matter little once the second act gets going. Even with the expansion, it is still a two-person act. It is just one with a mix of onlookers, some knowing, some unknowing. Whether they are named or unnamed, they eventually fade into the background as figures propping up the meta-narrative. Which can be rather deflating.
Still, the performances are on point. Holland is sympathetic despite his mishaps and misjudgments, and Mara’s Lula is particularly evil, honest about being a liar, tactical about her tactlessness. Even if the movie did not nudgewink about Lula’s role as ‘the baddie’ or make her so openly evil, she does not come off as over-the-top, as there are plenty of people like her in the real world using her playbook.
Likewise, Henderson’s Dr Amiri is suitably knowing, and Beetz’s Kaya is touching. The visual storytelling is strong too, with some shots showing Clay’s vulnerability through its use of space, light, and color alone. But it is ultimately a different story from ‘Dutchman’- a twisty-turny one that is rather on the nose and loses track of itself until it gets back to where it all started.
Does that make it outright bad? Not necessarily. It is unlikely to do much for viewers who are not already familiar with ‘Dutchman’, and there are better thrillers about racial tensions out there. Ones with better pacing and clearer stories. But if The Dutchman was on, and that subgenre was up a viewer’s street, it is unlikely to hurt them. For these reasons, Cryptic Rock gives it 3 out of 5 stars.
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