Set in 1992, We Grown Now takes place in Cabrini-Green, a now-defunct Chicago public housing project that began with high ideals and wound up as a hotbed for crime. The story centers on two boys, played with engaging naturalism by Blake Cameron James and Gian Knight Ramirez. Ramirez's Eric lives with his widowed dad (Lil Red Howery); James' Malik lives with his mother (Jurnee Smollett), grandmother (S. Epatha Merkerson) and his sister (Madisyn Barnes). The families struggle but they're strong and resilient, and the boys know how to have fun. They use old mattresses as landing pads for playground leaps they refer to as “flying.” Relying on atmosphere and the realism of its performances, director Minhal Baig’s episodic movie fully embraces the boys' world. The movie follows them as they skip school or try to understand the hand they've been dealt. Baig sounds tough notes when one of the boys' classmates is shot and killed. She also stages a police raid in which cops search the projects for drugs, wrecking apartments and showing no regard for the lives they're disrupting. The apartments are neat and homey, islands of normality. Tears flow at the end after Smollett's character makes a pivotal choice. When Baig refuses to let boyhood be smothered by the harsh surroundings of public housing, We Grown Now is at its best.
No comments:
Post a Comment