Period movies, especially those that are somewhat fictionalized narratives drawn from personal experience or scrupulous research, benefit from a sense of you-are-there verity. That verisimilitude can be crucial to delivering an emotional wallop. Such is the impact of We Grown Now — a delicately executed movie about best friends navigating childhood in Chicago’s Cabrini Green projects during the early 1990s. A similar commitment to legitimacy elevates docudramas inspired by significant historical events. Even with some dramatization, presumptions and amalgamations, the basics of the biopic One Life ring true as it recounts the struggle of an honorable British man to save scores of refugee children from the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia in 1938.
‘We Grown Now’
Screenwriter-director Minhal Baig delivers a very up-close-and-personal take on life in the notorious Cabrini Green projects, circa 1992. This less than congenial environment, since demolished, is seen through the relatively innocent eyes of two young boys — the almost inseparable Malik and Eric. Despite the inner-city clamor that surrounds them, Malik and Eric blithely deal with the challenges of school, public housing, and even gang conflicts, and amble around their hometown of Chicago in search of adventure. But when troubles come up and the Cabrini Green community is under fire (literally in some cases), the kids have to grow up in a hurry.
A shocking death and a sweep of the neighborhood by the police narcotics division darken the scene and wear on the friendship between Malik and Eric. As much as Malik’s devoted mother Delores and levelheaded grandmother Anita want to keep him and his older sister happy and comfortable, certain things are out of their control; and the same conundrum holds true for Eric’s father Jason. Concern for the safety of their offspring becomes paramount, even if parental strictures might tear apart the bond shared by the boys.
None of this seems melodramatic or overcooked, largely thanks to the simple elegance of Baig’s screenplay and direction. There is also naturalism and truth to the performances by the actors, young and old. Blake Cameron James as Malik and Gian Knight Ramirez as Eric are a delight to behold. Furthermore, those portraying the most significant adults in the movie strike all the right notes as concerned guardians: the magnetic Jurnee Smollett as Delores, the esteemed S. Epatha Merkerson as Anita, and Lil Rel Howery, who is often cast as comic relief but is less antic and more heartfelt than usual in the role of Jason.
There’s joy, pain, spirit, and determination on display in We Grown Now. At its core, this coming of age story set in questionable circumstances echoes some aspects of sublime French filmmaker Francois Truffaut’s 1959 classic The 400 Blows, wherein youthful protagonist Antoine Doinel wanders Paris on a quest of self-discovery. Although Paris is not Chicago (City of Lights versus City of Big Shoulders), the comparison to We Grown Now is a valid one. Its unerring sense of time and place, swaths of visual poetry, and acting informed by care, compassion, and honesty result in a sweet, sad, gentle reflection that lingers long after you watch it. Regardless of locale and era, We Grown Now offers a tender look at rough circumstances with loving parents trying their best to protect and nurture their offspring.
We Grown Now is playing in select theaters and opens in San Francisco on April 26.
‘One Life’
Child welfare is also a major thrust of One Life, an intermittently wrenching, ultimately uplifting biopic about Nicholas “Nicky” Winton, a London stockbroker who visited Prague in December 1938, right before the Nazis were about to occupy Czechoslovakia and close the border. With the clock ticking, Winton spearheaded an effort to rescue as many at-risk children from Prague as possible, getting the predominantly Jewish youngsters to England while it could still be done — even as the Nazi menace was ramping up. One Life is a tension-filled race against time as Nicky’s humanitarian mission consumes his every waking hour. Additionally, the movie functions as a still-necessary reminder of the horrors that humanity can unleash in the name of nationalism and the acquisition of power.
The centerpiece of One Life is a finely-tuned and quietly moving performance by the venerable Anthony Hopkins as Winton in his twilight years. Although it feels in places like a standard-issue World War II-era historical drama, it benefits from its time-shifting biographical elements with Johnny Flynn playing Nicky as an idealistic young man and Hopkins playing the aged Winton, a retiree pained by memories of the tragedy that spurred and plagued his efforts and haunted by regret for those he failed to save. As both ends of the story play out and dovetail at the conclusion of One Life, there shouldn’t be a dry eye cast upon it.
Hopkins and Flynn are aided on screen by a fine company that includes Helena Bonham Carter as Nicky’s mother in the flashbacks and Lena Olin as Winton’s wife in the sequences with the elder Nicky. Director James Hawes oversaw a heartfelt script by Lucinda Coxon and Nick Drake, which the screenwriters based on If It’s Not Impossible … The Life of Sir Nicholas Winton, a biography of Winton written by his daughter Barbara. Besides the continually relevant idea that fascism is bad, the movie’s most resonant message is simple: One man and one life can make a difference.
One Life is playing in theaters and is available on demand via Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, Google Play and YouTube.
Michael Snyder is a print and broadcast journalist who covers pop culture on “The Mark Thompson Show,” via YouTube, iTunes and I Heart Radio, and on “Michael Snyder’s Culture Blast,” via GABNet.net and Roku. Follow Michael on X @cultureblaster and on Threads @miketheknife123.
