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OUR SONG Send This Review to a Friend
Honest and poignant, "Our Song" gently and realistically takes us into the lives of three Brooklyn high school friends in a coming-of-age story that depends more on the details of day-to-day events and attitudes toward one-another than on plot devices. By the end of the film we know a lot about Lanisha Brown (Kerry Washington), Maria Hernandez (Melissa Martinez) and Joycelyn Clifton (Anna Simpson), each likable in her own way.
The terrain covered is not unusual. There are the preoccupations with boys, the concerns about and perils of sex, the expectations of loyalty and the strains on friendships in the critical time of growing up and learning about who they really are. What makes the film different is the realism and intimacy that writer-director Jim McKay delivers. The film is unassuming and built on a sweetness that makes it enjoyable and enlightening without turning it into the more overtly dynamic film that might have been forged with accentuated plot contrivances or melodrama.
The setting is also vital. The three, who live in a Crown Heights housing project, belong to a large marching band, and that gives a center to their lives that is more solid than the dangerous temptations of shoplifting and a positive alternative to problem home lives and situations that can threaten one's self-esteem and future. All three leading actresses deliver performances that are so natural you might think you have encountered them on a bus. As for the band, it is actually the Jackie Robinson Steppers Marching Band of Brooklyn that is part of the Jackie Robinson Center for Physical Culture, which reaches some 5,000 students of various ethic and religious backgrounds.
This is McKay's second feature film--his first was "Girls Town"--and "Our Song" shows further evidence of his special talent. An IFC Films release.
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