‘We Grown Now’ Review – An Emotionally Charged And Profoundly Moving Story About Black Boyhood & Friendship [DIFF 2024]

Set in Chicago’s Cabrini-Green Housing Projects during the early 90s, We Grown Now tells the story of two best friends, Malik (Blake Cameron Jame) and Eric (Gian Knight Ramirez), as they come of age against the backdrop of gang violence and a concrete jungle of aged, crumbling buildings. They spend time leaping into the air and onto old mattresses for fun, relishing in the pure joy they feel for those few seconds they soar through the air. This duo of charming but vulnerable ten-year-olds already possess the wisdom that their circumstances in life aren’t the best, even though both come from hardworking families who want more for them. Malik lives with his resilient but weary mother, Dolores (Jurnee Smollett), wise grandmother, Anita (S. Epatha Merkerson), and little sister, Diana (Madisyn Barnes). The four live in a cramped two-bedroom apartment and regularly eat the same meals due to convenience and affordability. Dolores is hardworking and desperately wants more for her mother and her kids.

On the other hand, Eric’s family is grappling with their challenges. His father, Jason (Lil Rel Howery), is doing his best to hold the family together after the sudden loss of his wife. Amber (Avery Holliday), Eric’s older sister, is on the cusp of becoming the first in their family to graduate from college. While she loves her family, she also feels the weight of responsibility as she steps into the role of a mother figure for her little brother, a role that brings her both joy and heartache.

Their bond, a beacon of light in their challenging lives, is threatened when escalating street violence motivates Dolores to seek a promotion at her job. The promotion would require her to leave behind Cabrini-Green and everything she and her family have ever known. When Eric discovers that Malik’s family is moving and that his best friend hasn’t told him, it creates a heartbreaking fracture in the young friendship, a bond that has been their source of strength and comfort in their complicated lives.

We Grown Now is a beautiful and profoundly moving film that gives Black boys the room to be vulnerable, sensitive, and wise beyond their years. While many films that take place within the same setting would have the boys or their families succumb to drugs, join a gang, or deal with depressing poverty, the film decides to shed light on a rarely seen perspective. Hardworking, honest families who are doing the best they can to survive their present circumstances. It’s a welcome and refreshing change to stories that involve Black families living in dangerous neighborhoods.

To say the two young performers who portray Malik and Eric are astoundingly talented is putting it mildly.  Blake, in particular, does a lot of heavy lifting when it comes to the moments that are more emotionally demanding of the two. He’s the more hopeful of the two boys and interested in the world beyond Cabrini Green. Blake’s portrayal of Malik is thoughtful and emotional, and at a very young age, he possesses a commanding presence that will only become more enhanced and refined as he grows as an actor.

Gian, who portrays Eric, will break hearts as the more hopeless, and pessimistic of the duo. Unlike Malik, Eric is convinced he will live and die in Cabrini-Green. The death of his mother is like a dark cloud that looms over his every waking moment. There is one moment in particular in which he recollects happier times when his mother was still alive. Malik reminds him that his mother will always watch over him, and Eric responds, “I feel sorry for her. There isn’t much to see.” Eric is deeply depressed, but at a young age, he doesn’t have the language to communicate that to his father, who is focused on trying to hold his family together.

The adult actors in the film are no slouches either. Smollett and Merkerson both have emotional, somber scenes that any parent or grandparent to young children can relate to. They want the best for their families and are determined to make it happen no matter what. Howery does a great job as well as Eric’s distant, but hardworking father.

The way the film brings the city of Chicago to life is also worth mentioning. Particularly during the sequence during which the boys skip school and hop on a subway to visit the Art Institute of Chicago. There’s a beautiful shot of the pair running down the sunlit streets of downtown Chicago with the Institute looming in the background. The duo rushes up the steps and pedestrians stand frozen in time, rendered irrelevant as the two friends inhabit their own little fantasy world. Shots of the sunlight reflecting off of Lake Michigan as the Navy Pier Ferris wheel spins in the background help infuse this version of Chicago with life and make it an additional character within the film.

We Grown Now is a moving, coming-of-age film that reminds viewers to imagine a life beyond their present circumstances and to never be afraid to fly.

We Grown Now was viewed at the 2024 Dallas International Film Festival. The film is currently playing in select theaters courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics.