Rob Peace

Robert Peace grows up in Newark, enters Yale as an outstanding student and studies molecular biophysics. At the same time his father is serving a sentence for murder, and the son is trying to reopen the case. Life after graduation is spent trying to hold two worlds together. Chiwetel Ejiofor wrote, directed and plays the father. Jay Will plays Robert, Mary J. Blige his mother. The source is Jeff Hobbs's book; the author was Peace's roommate at Yale and wrote the story after his friend's death. At the centre is the question of whether crossing class is possible. Peace never fully belongs at the university or in the neighbourhood, and the movement between them eventually becomes a choice. The telling follows the classic biography template, aimed at recording rather than surprising. This is Ejiofor's second film as a director and he keeps the tone measured. Who it is for: viewers who like true-life drama and stories built on education and class. Who it is not for: anyone expecting an optimistic ending; the story stays faithful to what happened.