Ashby, already an Oscar-winning editor, debuts with a tour-de-force that and here’s the twist could hardly be made today, at least not by a major studio. Its trenchant critique of US racism in general and gentrification in particular indict Americans in 2023 as much, if not more, than our (fore)fathers in 1970. Most surprising of all for our dour moment, it’s a comedy directed by a white man, but adapted by a Black man (Billy Gunn) from a novel by a Black woman (Kristin Hunter). Class is never far from the lens, as the intersections of oppression are unsparingly (and by turns lightheartedly and seriously) exposed and explored. The Landlord is not a bid for representation but a compelling account of lived conditions. The poor, high school dropout Ashby could do no other.