The universality of writer/director Dee Rees' Pariah is underscored on the night we meet its teenaged protagonist, Alike (Adepero Oduye). Riding the bus home from a cruisey lesbian club in Brooklyn, she sullenly disassembles her butch outfit, brushing out her hair and adding earrings, before having to face her mother's scolding for breaking curfew. It's a quintessential hallmark of adolescent experience that immediately sets the tone for a coming-of-age story about a black, gay character—possibly the least sellable combination in Hollywood—that's both deftly relatable and urgently progressive. by Marjorie Skinner