''Sollers Point'' is a 2017 American-French

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. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super ...

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 H ...

. It stars McCaul Lombardi,

Jim Belushi James Adam Belushi (; born June 15, 1954) is an American actor. He is best known for the role of Jim on the sitcom ''According to Jim'' (2001–2009). His other television roles include ''Saturday Night Live'' (1983–1985), '' Total Security'' ...

Zazie Beetz Zazie Olivia Beetz ( ; ; born June 1, 1991) is a American actress. She stars in the FX comedy-drama series ''Atlanta'' (2016–22), for which she received a nomination for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy ...

Tom Guiry Thomas John Guiry (born October 12, 1981) is an American actor. He is best known for his lead performance as Scott Smalls in the cult coming-of-age film ''The Sandlot,'' which he held at the age of 12, and his role in NBC crime drama ''The Black D ...

and

Marin Ireland Marin Yvonne Ireland 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". Her accolades include a Theatre World Award and nom ...

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

* McCaul Lombardi as Keith *

as Carol *

as Courtney *

as Aaron *

as Kate * Everleigh Brenner as Jessie *

Imani Hakim Imani Hakim (born 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 movie ''The Gabb ...

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 especially known for her role as Magda in the HBO series ''Sex and the City'', which she ...

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

Production

In May 2016, it was announced McCaul Lombardi,

and Jurnee Smollett-Bell 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 a ...

began in August 2016, in

Baltimore, Maryland Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...

Release and Reception

The film had its world premiere at the

San Sebastián International Film Festival The San Sebastián International Film Festival ( SSIFF; es, Festival Internacional de San Sebastián, eu, Donostia Zinemaldia) is an annual FIAPF A category film festival held in the Spanish city of Donostia-San Sebastián in September, in ...

on September 26, 2017. Shortly after,

Oscilloscope Laboratories Oscilloscope Laboratories is an independent film company and distributor founded by Adam Yauch Adam Nathaniel Yauch ( ; August 5, 1964 – May 4, 2012), better known under the stage name MCA, was an American rapper, bass player, filmmaker and ...

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-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, and Stephen Wan ...

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 weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issue ...

'', 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