Movie Review - Residue (2020)

Writer-director Merawi Gerima makes his feature debut. He was born and raised in Washington, DC. He was raised in or near what's known as NoMa, which is a neighborhood in the District. Specifically, he grew up on or near Q Street in that part of town. That part of town is predominantly African-American in its residents, if not all African-American. Gerima spent his whole life there, except when he left to college. He went to school at the University of Southern California (USC). He was gone for some time, but eventually he returned to DC. When he did, he noticed some changes, mainly the gentrification of the  area. This caused him to reflect on his childhood and the differences between now and the time he left, both good and bad. He decided to do a semi-autobiographical film about that reflection. This film is the result.

The look and feel of it are very much akin to a documentary. It looks as if it were shot using small and cheap, video cameras, cameras that could fit effortlessly in the palm of one's hand. It also looks like there wasn't that large of a crew with Gerima. He probably shot and edited the thing all by himself. There's a lot of shaky, handheld camerawork. There's a lot of what looks like guerilla filmmaking, run-and-gun. There's an amateur quality to it, but, at the same time, there's also a genuine and authentic quality to it as well. It's almost as if a large camera crew was unneeded but also perhaps antithetical to the feeling Gerima was trying to convey. For a lot of people in this film, it's unclear if they are actors or simply real people who live in the neighborhood. If that's the case, a lot of fancy or expensive equipment wouldn't have engendered the trust Gerima required to approach them and capture them on video. At the heart of the changes Gerima probably observed is the erosion of trust and the feeling of community that allows people living in it to approach and engage with others.

Obi Nwachukwu, in his feature debut, stars as Jay or Jarrell, the proxy for Gerima. Jay grew up in DC but left to go to college in California. The narrative begins with him driving back to DC.  He lives with his parents, but he wants to kick off his career by doing a film about the neighborhood. He does so by going around and trying to reconnect with most of his childhood friends. Reportedly, Gerima wasn't gone from DC for that long, maybe just a few years or so, but this film makes it seem like Jay has been gone for even longer. People in the neighborhood seem barely to recognize him. Yet, he's trying to catch up and figure out what's been happening since he's been gone.

Jay had four friends growing up in DC. Jay is able to reconnect with three of them. The one that he doesn't is a childhood friend named Demetrius. The way the film is edited, we see flashbacks to Jay's childhood. These are memories, which is a major theme in this film. Even a lot of the dialogue in this film is all about people reminiscing or remembering things that happened or that used to be. As such, Gerima is building on this idea of how memories are the foundation and core of who people are and what makes a community and bonding. Right now, all Jay has is his memories of Demetrius. He wants more though, so he tries to find him, but none of other friends will help.

One reason none will help is because he could be seen now as an outsider. Even though Jay grew up in that neighborhood, his leaving for college and being gone for as long as he was has apparently alienated him. There's some kind of parallel to Jay's alienation and the so-called gentrification that is occurring in his neighborhood as well. One would think that no white people lived in his neighborhood prior to his leaving for college, but when Jay gets back, there are so many white people. Every interaction with white people is one microaggression after another or one awkward, tense or potentially racist interaction after another. This film focuses on the psychical toll that can have on a young black man in the thick of it.

Gerima translates this almost perfectly in his montages, edited sequences that are visual chaos. Those sequences convey the fun and the fear that swirl within Jay, as a black man in this community. It's as fractured and frustrating in its images, as the emotional turmoil that must be inside Jay. What is surprising and refreshing is the camaraderie between the black men here. Jay has a moment with a friend named Dion, played by Jamal Graham. It's about the friendship between these two black men, the love, the compassion and the heartfelt affection they share, as well as the distance that exists that prevent them from truly embracing and having that affection. The scene between Jay and Dion is probably one of the best I've seen between two young black men in a long time.

Rated TV-MA.
Running Time: 1 hr. and 30 mins.

Available on Netflix.