Review of A Boy. A Girl. A Dream (2018) by Ron C — 25 Jan 2018

"Reliving a nightmare at Sundance".

A beautiful film.

For me, it was to re-experience that heart-wrenching election night when Americans failed, when we did not live up to who and what we are as freedom loving, open society. But the details of that night are never enunciated by the two main characters. Instead, in a similar yet more dynamic than Richard Linklater's films, we stick with this African American man and woman who have just met in one continuous scene. The pain for where we are in America and what this election night signals is palpable in every glance, every embrace, every turn.

Never have I consistently felt so much with so few words. The film was ultimately cathartic, a re-living through the eyes of others, through the eyes of an upper-middle-class black community and more specifically a man and woman coming to terms with themselves and each other, who both desperately want to continue to dream. The election is not dissected, and only obliquely mentioned, but it pervades, seeping into every crack, through semi-heard radio reports, TV images, and literal gasps as the results of our broken dream become a reality. What prevails here is the personal portrayed through the director's, Qasim Basir, vision and the sensitive, instinctual performances of Omari Hardwick and Meagan Good.

And in the personal details of two lives ending in one small act of defiance, I was left with hope.