This biopic of the charismatic gay civil rights activist Bayard Rustin (1912-87), one of the key figures behind the 1963 March on Washington, is a great deal more conventional and conservative in approach than its subject ever was. The follow-up to Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom by director George C Wolfe, Rustin is solid, slightly stagey film-making that is elevated by a thrillingly dynamic central performance from the versatile Colman Domingo. A skittering jazz score adds energy; the brisk editing does its best to keep the story moving. Even so, this is more of a dutiful plod through the facts than the kind of film that makes history come alive.
