Movie Review - Premature (2020)

Rashaad Ernesto Green is a filmmaker from the Bronx. He got his master's degree from NYU. While there, he directed a short film called Premature (2008). It won several prestigious awards, including the American Black Film Festival award and Best African American Student Filmmaker at the Directors Guild Awards. His feature debut was Gun Hill Road (2011), which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival of that year. Since then, he's been directing episodic television. For his second feature, he returns to that 2008 short film that garnered him so much early acclaim. He also returns to collaborate with the young black actress who starred in that short film, an actress who helped him write Gun Hill Road, as well as helped him write this current feature.

Zora Howard is herself a poet and she has appeared in several of Green's films. Here, she stars as Ayanna, a teenage girl living in Harlem. She's a senior in high school about to graduate and go to college out of state, presumably Bucknell University. She aspires to be a writer, focusing on poetry. She has a journal in which she's always writing lyrics. It's the summer before she leaves for college and she's mostly hanging out with her friends. She's part of a 4-girl clique that wear long braids, who are all whip-smart and talk fast, laughing and on the hunt for boys. They specifically hang out at a park where they can watch boys play basketball and lust after them. Ayanna goes along and participates, but she doesn't seem that into the boys there. She looks like and is similar in personality to Jada Pinkett's character in Jason's Lyric (1994).

That 1994 film is particularly relevant because it's been awhile, since we've gotten a film with the almost raw black sexuality of Jason's Lyric. There have been several films since and even recently that have had very respectful, sex scenes between two African-Americans. Some of those films have featured female and male nudity of the full-body variety. Examples include If Beale Street Could Talk (2018) and Nobody's Fool (2018). Yet, those films have been very respectful and tasteful. Those films weren't as raw as Jason's Lyric or films like it from the 90's, even films involving white people. For this film to feature that kind of raw sexuality and nudity is rather refreshing. It's not quite erotica but it's close.

Joshua Boone is an actor who has been on Broadway and various TV shows. This is only his second feature film, if you discount the TV movies for ABC that he did. Yet, this is his first film to get a theatrical release. Boone stars as Isaiah, a young black man who has moved to Harlem in order to pursue his dream of being a music producer and composer. He's there from Raleigh or some place down south. He has family that lives in Harlem, specifically a cousin. He likes to play basketball with his cousin, which is how he sees and meets Ayanna.

When I say the film is raw, it's not to disparage the film on its technical qualities. However, there is a rough-around-the-edges kind of feel to it. The look of the film, on a technical level, does appear to have some graininess to it, which doesn't make it a surprise to know it was shot on 16 mm. Despite the film taking place in present day, that 16 mm film-stock does give the feature a throwback quality, as if it were made in the 90's by an up-and-coming filmmaker of that decade. Beyond that, it also helps to give the film a feeling of genuineness and authenticity. That authenticity though is probably more a result of the writing and acting, which feels very much lived-in and true-to-life. If you're never been to Harlem or possibly the Bronx, this film will make you feel like you have.

Not to spoil things too much, but the 2008 short centered on a young black girl's decision about an unplanned pregnancy. In this feature, Ayanna doesn't exactly have that dilemma. Hers is more a coming-of-age in which she has to navigate the ups-and-downs of being in a serious relationship for the first time. It's implied that despite her bravado and all her talk, she hasn't been in a serious relationship or had a real boyfriend before. It's also implied that the guys she's been with, if any at all, were all about sex and not much else. This might be the first deep and meaning partner she's had.

Yes, there is a lot of verisimilitude to this narrative, but, the film leans on the idea that Ayanna's connection to Isaiah on that deeper level is rare. It's to say that their love or their falling in love is rare, almost as if this is true love or perhaps he's the one, which is a fairy tale concept, not totally suited for such a narrative with gritty verisimilitude. For Ayanna, a girl who writes poetry and who thinks in poetic language, it's not that unreasonable that she would subscribe to that fairy tale idea, even if it didn't work out. Howard certainly gives a heartfelt performance that puts her on the level of Jada Pinkett, Halle Berry and other great young black actresses.

The film also features a great song that was released back in 2012 as part of a live-recording. It's called "John Forbid" by Jennah Bell. It's currently featured on her EP titled Anatomy (2015). The song was then included on her LP titled Anchors & Elephants (2019). It's not a new song by any stretch, but, it was re-recorded by Myha'la Herrold who plays the character of Dymond in the feature. On that basis, and due to how beautiful and amazing it is, I would include the song on my best of 2020 list.

Not Rated but contains graphic nudity and intense sexuality.
Running Time: 1 hr. and 29 mins.

To see it theaters or VOD, go to https://www.prematurefilm.com/.