Aiden Madrid

domestic drama from 2019. In the Florida suburbs we encounter an African American seemingly living the perfect life. Dad, played by This is Us’ Sterling K. Brown, is an architect w/a son vying for a wrestling scholarship (& who has a loving girlfriend), a daughter & his new wife. The cracks in the dream start to emerge when the son, played by Kelvin Harrison Jr. (from Netflix’s recent Monster), after a visit to a doctor gets the news he’s putting too much strain on his muscles in his arm which will need surgery soon. Ignoring this, the inevitable happens when he gets hurt in a match. Meanwhile his girl tells him she’s pregnant & they agree to have an abortion but when she changes her mind, he has to live w/the decision, whether he likes it or not. As the relationship degenerates (she finally breaks it off w/him via text), it sends him into a spiral of drug & alcohol abuse which culminates at a prom after party where he confronts her in an argument but when she turns her back on him, he lashes out accidentally killing her. Looking at my watch, we were past the one hour mark on a film which runs over 2 & before my mind started to spin scenarios about what was going to happen next, I got my answer. We now follow the aftermath of the killing (Harrison goes to jail & is sentenced to 30 years to life) from his sister’s, played by Escape Room’s Taylor Russell, point of view as she navigates her new terrain being a social & public pariah where we see her keeping her head in her books, eating her meals at school on her own & occasionally catching arguments between Brown & his wife, played by Renee Elise Goldberry (from Hamilton), on how the family is coping. A light appears on the horizon when Russell meets w/Lucas Hedges (Oscar nominee for Manchester by the Sea) & a tentative romance begins where Russell realizes no matter abhorrent her brother’s actions, her life must go on. Written & directed by Trey Edward Shults (It Comes at Night), he has crafted a Malickesque tome on the trials & tribulations a family goes through under the most extreme, soul crushing circumstances where long stretches of the film hang on the actors body language usually under some emotional turmoil contrasted against the picturesque vistas they live against. Not for everyone expecting the usual sturm und drang these types of tales usually inhabit but remarkable that its subject matter is so bleak & dismal can eventually be a beacon of hope & possibility. Also starring Alexa Demie (from Euphoria) as Harrison’s girlfriend & Clifton Gonzalez as her father. 67