''Sollers Point'' is a 2017

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. The drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular ...

written and directed by

Matthew Porterfield Matthew "Matt" Porterfield (born October 6, 1977) is an American independent filmmaker. He has made four feature films to date, ''Hamilton'' (2006), '' Putty Hill'' (2011), '' I Used to Be Darker'' (2013) and ''Sollers Point'' (2017). ''Putty Hi ...

. It stars

McCaul Lombardi McCaul Lombardi (born May 20, 1991) is an American actor. Born in Baltimore City, Maryland, he is known for his roles in '' American Honey'', which won the Jury Prize at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival; and ''Patti Cake$'' - which had its world pr ...

Jim Belushi James Adam Belushi (; born June 15, 1954) is an American actor and comedian. His television roles include ''Saturday Night Live'' (1983–1985), ''According to Jim'' (2001–2009), and '' Good Girls Revolt'' (2015–2016). Belushi appeared in fi ...

Zazie Beetz Zazie Olivia Beetz ( ; ; born June 1, 1991) is a German-American actress. She is known for her role in the FX (TV channel), FX comedy-drama series ''Atlanta (TV series), Atlanta'' (2016–2022), for which she received a nomination for the Primet ...

Tom Guiry Thomas John Guiry (born October 12, 1981) is an American actor. He is best known for his lead performance as Scott "Scotty" Smalls in the coming-of-age film ''The Sandlot,'' which was filmed when he was 12, and his role in NBC crime drama ''The Bl ...

and

Marin Ireland Marin Ireland (born August 30, 1979) is an American actress. Known for her work in theatre and independent films, ''The New York Times'' deemed Ireland "one of the great drama queens of the New York stage". She has received nominations for two I ...

Plot

''Sollers Point'' tells the story of Keith (Lombardi), a twenty-four-year-old newly released from prison and living with his father (Belushi) under house arrest in Baltimore. Keith is struggling to reestablish himself, and break free of the bonds forged behind bars, within a community scarred by unemployment, neglect, and deeply entrenched segregation. His intentions are in the right place and he possesses an aggressive desire to get back on his feet, but as he taps into all his familiar resources, he finds that he may be reverting to his old ways.

Cast

as Keith *

as Carol *

as Courtney *

as Aaron *

as Kate * Everleigh Brenner as Jessie *

Imani Hakim Imani Hakim (born August 12, 1993) is an American actress. She is best known for her role as Tonya Rock on the UPN/ CW sitcom ''Everybody Hates Chris'' as well as portraying Olympic gold medalist Gabby Douglas in the 2014 Lifetime original mo ...

as Candace * Wass Stevens as Wasp *

Lynn Cohen Lynn Harriette Cohen (née Kay; August 10, 1933 – February 14, 2020) was an American actress known for her roles in film, television and theater. She was particularly known for her role as Magda in the HBO series ''Sex and the City'', which sh ...

as Ladybug * Brieyon Bell-El as Marquis * Kazy Tauginas as Gary * Michael Rogers as Mom * Ashley Shelton as Kelsey * Grace Doughty as Kelly *Carlous Palmer as Graveyard worker * Levi Amir Serkin-Ahmed as Baby by the pool * James Majik as tattooed gangster

Production

In May 2016, it was announced

and

Jurnee Smollett-Bell Jurnee Diana Smollett (born October 1, 1986) is an American actress. She began her career as a child actress appearing on television sitcoms, including '' On Our Own'' (1994–1995) and ''Full House'' (1992–1994). She gained greater recognition ...

joined the cast of the film, with

directing from a screenplay he wrote. Ryan Zacarias, Alexandra Byer, and Jordan Mintzer will serve as producers.

Filming

Principal photography Principal photography is the phase of producing a film or television show in which the bulk of shooting takes place, as distinct from the phases of pre-production and post-production. Personnel Besides the main film personnel, such as the ...

began in August 2016, in

Baltimore, Maryland Baltimore is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland. With a population of 585,708 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census and estimated at 568,271 in 2024, it is the List of United States ...

Release and reception

The film had its world premiere at the

San Sebastián International Film Festival The San Sebastián International Film Festival ( SSIFF; , ) is an annual FIAPF A category film festival held in the Spain, Spanish city of Donostia, Donostia-San Sebastián in September, in the Basque Country (autonomous community), Basque Countr ...

on September 26, 2017. Shortly after,

Oscilloscope Laboratories Oscilloscope Laboratories is an independent film company, distributor, recording studio and production facility. It was founded by Adam Yauch Adam Nathaniel Yauch ( ; August 5, 1964 – May 4, 2012), also known by the stage name MCA, was an Am ...

acquired U.S. distribution rights. It was released theatrically on May 18, 2018. , 85% of the 27 critics reviews compiled on

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

are positive, with an average rating of 6.85/10. Richard Brody, reviewing the film for ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. It was founded on February 21, 1925, by Harold Ross and his wife Jane Grant, a reporter for ''The New York T ...

'', wrote: " 'Sollers Point''plunges into some of the gravest and ugliest aspects of modern American life and pulls them to the fore in a chilling intimacy . . . . Porterfield gently but unshrinkingly touches some of the most inflamed and sensitive places of American society, including the relentless strains of racism, the threat of unemployment, the contraband economy, the horrors of incarceration, the ravages of addiction, the ubiquity of gun violence. . . . In “Sollers Point,” Porterfield reaches a synthesis of his efforts, or, rather, reaches a new stage of his art—the film is endowed with a quietly turbulent and complex fusion of personal observation and candid pain, local specificity and a wide-spectrum vision of politics at large." The film was named a Critic's Pick by the New York ''Times'' and one of the 10 Best Movies of the Year by '' Vanity Fair.'' In his ''Vanity Fair'' recap, K. Austin Collins called ''Sollers Point'' "a subtle, razor-sharp portrait of working-class Baltimore" featuring "a wide-angle, all-encompassing sense of community" and "a star-making performance" by Lombardi.

References

Externals

* * {{IMDb title, id=5180888, title=Sollers Point 2017 films English-language French films American drama films French drama films American independent films French independent films 2010s English-language films 2010s American films 2010s French films