Review of A Raisin in the Sun, directed by Daniel Petrie

If you’re new here, and stumbled upon this blog through the mythical powers of the Internet, welcome! I know a lot of visitors to my website are people who randomly come upon this website through search engines like Google, but I also do have a lot of visitors who come back. Regardless: my name is Ashley, and I started this blog in order to keep track of everything I’m coming across in the world.

For three years I worked professionally as a film critic, and while going to all of the film festivals and interviewing directors and actors was cool for a while, but I wanted to reclaim my time and watch movies I wanted to watch. Sometimes watching all of the new releases is great, and behind ahead of the curve, but I feel like I was falling so behind on movies I was genuinely excited about.

So I quit and decided to focus on this blog, and fell back more into literary criticism. I also randomly fell into a period of unemployment because of unexpected circumstances, and I took a long and hard look at my finances and realized I had enough to take time off. I did end up doing that, traveled for a bit, applied to jobs, and found myself working on the blog now more than ever.

One of my many goals in 2025 has been to get into more cinema that reflects the broader diversity of the United States. I’ve always been focused on BIPOC stories, but I want to diversify the kinds of stories I’m consuming. I know it’s very easy to fall into the traps of what kind of movies, books, and art you’ve already been consuming, putting you into a cycle of the same kind of content, but I want to go further.

I’ve already seen A Raisin in the Sun on the stage before. I saw it when the Public Theatre in New York City put on a production a few years back, and the actors all portrayed the stories in it in a way that were moving and powerful. It made me more curious to watch the Poitier film adaptation of this classic play, but I never got around to until now.

This was one of the final movies I watched before I cancelled my Criterion subscription. I just couldn’t afford it without any job to supplement my subscriptions, and I had to become more picky about what kinds of things I was spending my money on in the long term.

Let’s get into the review! I don’t want to ramble too much in the introduction, that’s for sure.

One Chicago family looks to better themselves, except it becomes difficult financially and socially.

Something to note about this movie before we get into the thick of things, for those who are not aware, is that it is partially based on the reality of Hansberry’s (the playwright who originally wrote this) life. Her father purchased a home on the white side of town, and in 1940 his case protesting against the anti-Black sentiments that prevented them from living in said home made it all the way to the Supreme Court.

This movie begins with the death of the grandfather in the Younger family, and they are expecting to receive a life insurance check that will be $10,000—which is a lot of money in the early 1960s. Each member of the family has a vision on what they could do with that money—Lena Younger, who was the wife of the dead man, wants to buy the family a nice house so they can stop living in a cramped apartment in Chicago’s South Side.

Her son, however, wants to buy a liquor store. He thinks that they need a steady income rather than just a house, as they would not be able to finance the costs of living there, but his wife agrees more with his mother. Their daughter Beneatha would prefer the money is used for her medical school tuition.

Lena decides on her own that she is going to put a down payment on a house in Clybourne Park, which is a white area of town. Walter keeps nagging her about what the money is used for, and she gives him some of the money with the instructions of using it for Beneatha’s medical school bills and some of his personal endeavors.

At the same time, Beneatha is having relationship troubles, as she rejects George, a boy who loves her very much, as she thinks that he doesn’t see the issues Black people are facing today. However, she has another suitor: the Nigerian Joseph, who is highly intelligent and wants to take her back to Africa once they graduate.

Ruth also realizes she is pregnant and debates an abortion, as they cannot afford another child. Walter doesn’t seem to care about what decision is made, but Lena is very much against it.

But larger problems are brewing: the white neighbors discover their future neighbors, the Youngers, are Black, and they are very much against it. They send in Mark from the neighborhood association to pay them off and try to get them to not move in, but they refuse to listen to him and decide to keep going on with their future move.

Things get even worse when Walter realizes he lost all of the remaining insurance money. His partner he was going to open the liquor store with took all of the money and ran away, leaving Walter with none of the insurance money except for what his mother used for the house.

Walter debates taking of Mark’s offer for money to move out of their new home, even though his family disagrees with this. He decides not to in the end when Mark comes to hand over the money, and they prepare to move out of the apartment they’ve lived in their entire lives, even if it means the future seems a little dicey considering they are unwanted in their new neighborhood and they have none of money they started with.

Overall Thoughts

I think A Raisin in the Sun is a brilliant play, and while it might not make for the most entertaining movie for modern audiences looking for romance and superhero stories, it’s a critical story that serves as a snapshot for a specific period of time. It’s also well-acted, making it a treat to watch if you’re into understanding film as a medium for good acting.

There are some movies I think everyone should watch at least once, and this is one of them if I’m going to be honest. It’s a master class in how cinema can be translated from a written and theatrical medium, and it’s packed with social themes and critiques that many Americans today might not realize are still happening.

So go watch this if you’re interested and have the chance. Don’t just read about it; some of the magic of understanding film is done by watching it unfold on the screen in front of you.

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