Review: A gorgeous must-see, the Watts-shot 'If I Go Will They Miss Me' is aglow with fantasy
This is read by an automated voice.Please report any issues or inconsistencies here.
See more from the L.A.Times in Google Search.
Set us as preferred A boy from Watts stares at the ocean, imagining ancient Greek boats sailing across the Pacific and his father in a toga and sneakers, proudly hoisting a trident.This image of hero worship anchors Walter Thompson-Hernandez’s staggeringly lovely “If I Go Will They Miss Me,” an indie take on the perennial saga of lost men struggling to return home.The dad, paroled inmate Big Ant (J.
Alphonse Nicholson), has just come back after ages away from his family.“Kinda like Odysseus,” 12-year-old Lil Ant (Bodhi Dell) says, although the kid prefers to view his distant father as Poseidon and himself as Pegasus.
The movie’s metaphors are mixed; its sense of purpose is poetic and assured.The plot, expanded from Thompson-Hernandez’s Sundance-winning 2022 short of the same name, is more like a gesture toward the family’s unspoken drama.First incarcerated as a teenager, Big Ant has spent so much of his life locked up that his high school sweetheart, Lozita (a forceful Danielle Brooks), stays with him out of loyalty, not love.
Lozita, a nurse, knows she deserves better than this man, but she doesn’t know what to do about getting it.“Your daddy is a work in progress, I’m a work in progress,” she sighs.Torn as Lozita is, Brooks plays her with such conviction that whenever she’s not onscreen, you could believe the character is off starring in her own movie.
Entertainment & Arts Writer-director Walter Thompson-Hernández went from journalist to artist and filmmaker.His mission — exposing the hidden lives around us — never changed.Their oldest, Acacia (Zaria Kelley), is a straight-A nerd who spends a scene modeling old lady prom outfits that belong on her grandmother (J.J.
Boone).The baby (Mark Lane III) is an unquestioning sponge.
Little Ant is the middle child — and the source of Big Ant�...