User Reviews

This heartbreaking indictment of the downsides of gentrification evokes a decidedly powerful emotional response, but its disjointed storytelling approach leaves viewers wanting for greater clarity. When an aspiring Black screenwriter returns to the Washington, DC neighborhood where he grew up to pen a script about his upbringing, he's overwhelmed by the many changes that have taken place since he left and moved to California, most notably the pronounced shift in local demographics and the scattering of his childhood friends. Memories of his past flood back as he attempts to process the situation, an experience that incites an incendiary slowburn. While director Merawi Gerima's attempt at putting an artistic spin on this story is noteworthy, the approach doesn't work much of the time, leaving audiences scratching their heads trying to figure out exactly what is going on. The mix of present-day action and flashbacks becomes so cumbersomely jumbled at times that it's easy to lose sight of -- and interest in -- what's transpiring on the screen. A number of story threads remain woefully underdeveloped as a consequence, despite the elegant cinematography employed to depict portions of them. This offering would have been far more impactful if a more straightforward narrative approach were employed, something this debut filmmaker may want to consider for future projects.

It's a story about gentrification, but it seemed quite linear to me, and I never understood its endgame. The lead character has a purpose, that's clear, but the story does not give him relevant things to do, at least more active things to do beyond what he mixed with his memories and nostalgia for something that simply no longer exists. It's depressing to a certain extent, and clearly emotional, but I did not find it challenging as I read in some reviews from "professional critics." For me, the question that the protagonist never asks himself is why after not being where he used to lived for so long, he never explore the notion that things would not be the same? That's why he spends most of the film confused by his surroundings, trying to reconnect with his past life, meeting old friends who greet him from a distance and obviously don't have the same nostalgia he has. And the character never crosses that threshold of acceptance. The film is undoubtedly well done, and has well-made sequences taking into account that it's a debut. This is a pretty solid debut, but the director failed to get his message to go beyond his protagonist's vision.

This movie demonises white people for living in an American city. Reverse the races, and people would call this movie out for its overt racism. Everyone, of every race, has the same right to live anywhere. If it's not right to keep black people out of white neighbourhoods (it definitely isn't), it's not right to demand that white people never again live in a neighbourhood once it has become majority black for any length of time. No one is entitled to have their mono-racial neighbourhood preserved for ever, and if they desire a mono-racial neighbourhood, they should ask themselves why they are so intolerant of other races and so hateful of true diversity.