We Grown Now Review – Captivating Coming of Age Story

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Category: Film

Published on Friday, 02 February 2024 11:09

Written by Janet Walker

We Grown Now, from Sony Pictures Classics, brings to the screen a coming of age story set in 1993 Chicago and Cabrini Green, a public housing project, as two boys are on the edge of an uncertain tomorrow.

The film begins with two boys, Malik played by Blake Cameron James, and Eric, played by Gian Knight Ramirez, moving a mattress through the halls of an old building. They get it to the elevator, which is broken, and we see whatever they are planning to do with the mattress they are determined. Finally, they get the mattress outside the building, and carry it to a pile of mattresses on a playground.

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They throw the mattress on top of a pile of mattresses and begin doing somersaults in the air and landing on the mattresses. It's Chicago 1993 and they are residents of Cabrini Greens which, at this time is the largest public housing complex in the United States, with more than 17,000 residents.

The boys, we find out, are typical in this time, as the explosion of violence that cemented itself in the Chicago culture wasn't as prevalent then so the two talk about women, basketball, Michael Jordan, Scotti Pippin, Isaiah Thomas, and with boyhood banter decide who is the best, and a future that doesn't swallow them up.

Delores, played by Jurnee Smollett, and her mother Anita, played by S. Epatha Merkerson, are trying to keep Malik and his sister shielded from the storm she knows is coming. They are a people of faith. When Anita talks about Caprini Greens, she remembers it fondly, a place where those who migrated to escape the harsh realities of southern civil rights struggles could find a home, and a surrogate family, a community. The public housing option became home, woven together by faith.

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Eric's dad, Jason, played by Lil Rel Howery, is a single father, and while he is keeping it together, raising two children his daughter, played by Avery Holliday, is the first to graduate college, they are paycheck to paycheck. The loss of his wife frayed the fabric that kept them together.

Even as the boys are best friends, we see throughout the movie, circumstances are slowly pulling them apart. And then one day innocence of adolescence is shattered, when a classmate is shot and killed walking with his mother to school.

On that day everything changed. The limited tranquility of Cabrini Greens, their home became a controlled police state, and we see the confusion, frustration, and upset as Chicago violence found its way into their lives. The chaos continues as now suddenly, the police were showing up at random, in the middle of the night, and with disregard for the children, homes, possession were searching looking for drugs and weapons and anything illegal.

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Suddenly what was normal, as Malik and Eric take the train through Chicago, visiting Union Station, the Field Museum, watching people, talking about life trying to sound grown, becomes a traumatic experience for their parents as an incapacitating fear of random bullets, and death, has gripped the housing project.

Delores finally decides to apply for an internal promotion at her job. We understand her concern about rocking the boat, especially for a woman of color, so she decides to go for it she ends up getting the job and when she's told it's three hours away at first it sounds like she's confronting discrimination over her use of public transportation but really she's being told that in order to take this job and this advancement and this higher salary and everything that goes along with this job she would have to move away from the chaos of Cabrini Greens to a new neighborhood.

This sets up the film's finale.

We Grown Now, is a tender coming of age story, that explores more than the changes two young boys confront in inner city Chicago and explores finding oneself and the value of family, community, teammates, and friends.

The ensemble cast delivers authentic performances, capturing the essence of the time. From the safety of time, we can comprehend the fear and the hope, the complacency, and resistance to change.

We Grown Now, is nominated for an Best Feature Spirit Award, and has been bought by Sony Pictures Classic who will release it April 19, 2024 in Chicago, New York, and Los Angeles. See it.

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Country: U.S.

Language: English.

Runtime: 93 minutes.

Director: Minhal Baig.

Producer: Minhal Baig, Joe Pirro.

Writer: Minhal Baig.

Cast: Blake Cameron James, Gian Knight Ramirez, Giovani Chambers, Jurnee Smollett, S. Epatha Merkerson, Avery Holliday, Ora Jones, Charles Tiedje, David Folsom, Lil Rel Howey.