The Sumptuous Feast of Nia DaCosta’s 'Hedda'

Tessa Thompson shines in this bold reimagining of Henrik Ibsen's 1891 play.

(Photo by Courtesy of Prime)

I believe in the cinematic remake. While I love original stories, as a student of cinema history, I know that there are too many stories and eras on film from which we have been erased. We—as in Black people—were living deeply meaningful lives and telling deeply moving stories about those lives in every era, yet we have so little evidence of it onscreen. Enter the possibilities of the cinematic remake. In a deft writer/director’s hands, the remake can break and remold a familiar story, expanding its depth and stretching its purpose into something both urgent and timeless in its cultural relevance.

That is to say: Nia DaCosta has dusted off Henrik Ibsen’s crusty old white play, Hedda Gabler, from 1891 and infused it with new life and significance in her 2025 film adaptation, Hedda. Starring Tessa Thompson in what may be her best role to date—certainly my favorite performance from her—the infamous and perpetually unsatisfied socialite Hedda Gabler is now a half-Black bastard daughter of the famous white General Gabler in 1950s England. Her deceased father’s status has allowed her access to the world of white wealth (at least in appearances), and she’s throwing a lavish party to celebrate her new marriage to a mediocre local white academic, George, in the palatial estate he (sort of) bought her (but cannot afford).