Native Son is a 2019 American drama film directed by Rashid Johnson from a screenplay by Suzan-Lori Parks.

The film stars Ashton Sanders, Margaret Qualley, Nick Robinson, KiKi Layne, Bill Camp and Sanaa Lathan.

One day, Bigger receives an opportunity to interview for a job as the live-in chauffeur for the wealthy businessman Henry Dalton and his family.

This version of Bigger has, as described by Troy Patterson of The New Yorker, "goth black" nail polish and "toxic green" dyed hair.

[3] Patterson argued that this Bigger is "a bit adrift", "serious and cerebral", and "a late adolescent at loose ends" instead of the "thoughtless lunk" and "social problem" in the original novel.

[3] Parks chose to change the political affiliations of Jan and Mary because the Communist Party of the United States no longer had the stature it had in the past.

[8] In March 2018, it was announced Ashton Sanders, Nick Robinson, Margaret Qualley, Bill Camp and KiKi Layne had been cast in the film.

[9] In April 2018, Sanaa Lathan, Connie Nelson, Lamar Johnson and Jerod Haynes joined the cast of the film.

He also removed Bessie's death because having her survive would "give Bigger an opportunity to be both complicated and (empathetic) simultaneously, and that was just a step off of a cliff that didn't allow us to tell the story in a (contemporary) way that we thought would facilitate conversation.

The site's critics consensus reads: "Native Son's struggles with its problematic source material are uneven but overall compelling, thanks largely to Ashton Sanders' poised work in the central role.

"[21] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 63 out of 100, based on 12 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

[22] Benjamin Lee of The Guardian gave the film four of five stars, calling it "darkly compelling" with a "spellbinding performance", though he criticized it for not having "some connectivity between dramatic events".

[24] Troy Patterson, writing in The New Yorker, argues that the development of the film shows that the original text is out of date and is flawed.

[2] McDonald criticized this film for omitting the killing of Bigger's girlfriend as that plot point could have been used to explore domestic violence in African-American communities.

[3] Prince Shakur, in Teen Vogue, stated that the film shows that systemic factors are still harming black men even in the present day.