My wife and I watched this at home via Amazon Prime streaming movies. Quite different from most movies, some parts I didn't like, especially when there was lots of screaming or street arguments among the street guys. However the core of the story, involving a young black man longing to reassemble his family after earlier being evicted, is done very well.
We see on the news frequently that the high cost of housing in San Francisco continues to create problems and this story builds on that realism.
Jimmie Fails wrote and starts as himself, Jimmie Fails. This is his story, their former home in San Francisco was built in 1946 by his grandfather and he continues to visit it, even care for parts of it, even though a family now lives in it. He holds out hopes that he can get it back, but it is probably worth $4Million now. But we gradually find that his is a false memory, and his attachment to it is on shaky ground.
In an interview Fails states, "It's actually more a story about family, the fleeting nature of love and happiness, and fighting to find one's place in an evolving world. When I lost my house, which is what happens in the movie, it wasn't at all because of gentrification, it is about San Francisco changing, but that's not what we set out to make a film about."
Very interesting movie, some will like it while others might find it much ado about very little, or maybe just a slice of life of a black person in San Francisco constantly struggling to find a worthwhile life.
