52 Films by Women Vol 9. 27. Love, Brooklyn (Director: Rachael Abigail Holder)
There is one scene in the African American urban professional drama, Love,
Brooklyn, that I enjoyed. In it, the protagonist’s best friend, Alan (Roy Wood,
Jr) is sitting on bench outside a coffee shop holding his morning beverage when
he is approached by a woman in a red dress, also with coffee in hand. ‘You’re
without your friend today,’ she remarks. ‘Sorry?’ responds Alan, characterising
the way that people don’t immediately respond to the question put in front of
them that is a hallmark of director Rachael Abigail Holder’s debut feature. The
woman offers a qualifier. ‘Yes,’ responds Alan, referring to the absent
columnist Roger (André Holland) who rides a bicycle and is torn between two
women, gallery owner Casey (Nicole Beharie) and widowed single mother (and
masseuse) Nicole (DeWanda Wise), while he negotiates writer’s block. The woman
in red dress probes deeper. Since he’s alone, what is he thinking? Recalling
his friend’s difficulties, Alan is jolted to his senses. ‘I’m thinking about
what I’m going to get my wife for her birthday.’ The woman doesn’t break a
sweat as she changes tack. ‘You’ll think of something. Keep it simple. Remember
flowers,’ she adds supportively. Alan has to go but the scene represents what
women wish men would do, remember their commitments, hang on to their ‘happy
ever afters’ and not be extra-marital. I could hear whooping that must have
occurred in some auditoria, though not in mine where the audience of media and
industry people remained quiet throughout.
Working from a script by Paul Zimmerman (not the writer of The
King of Comedy but someone with the same name), Holder coaxes
relaxed performances from her cast. They don’t shout at each other so much as
shut down with a ‘aw, okay’. Thoughts are unsaid, but when Roger discovers his
articulacy, his words have no substance.
Pictured: Casey (Nicole Beharie, left) and Roger (André Holland, right) in a scene from the urban relationship triangle movie, 'Love, Brooklyn', written by Paul Zimmerman and directed by Rachael Abigail Holder. Still courtesy of Greenwich Entertainment.
Love, Brooklyn is a wispy period piece that bears no relation to the America of 2025, in which masked government agents zip-tie naked children, lynching has made a comeback and dissenting officials – usually women – are violently targeted. Holder’s film takes place in the ‘America Before’. I watched it and thought, ‘this is not a film for our time’. It should have had its release delayed. It certainly didn’t find an audience in urban areas, grossing only $254,261 after five weeks. It did quite well in one theatre, though, grossing almost $27,000 on opening day.
The film is a bit like watching a barbecue, less low stakes, more slow steaks.
Neither Casey nor Nicole choose to seek out any male company other than Roger
since it is implied that he knows how to give pleasure; in American football, I
guess he would be Left Tickle. We spend time with characters who are not
looking for serious relationships and think, ‘why bother?’ Satisfying
narratives deal with the struggle to overcome difficult obstacles, not standing
in front of a barista wondering what coffee to order.
We first see Roger coasting on his bicycle riding along streets happily
devoid of traffic. Roger doesn’t look
straight ahead, rather to the left as if nothing is likely to appear in front
of him. We see a lot of Roger on that damned bike. It is Holder’s way of
saying, he is thinking. He’s also directionless. Meandering bike rides are not
the way to reach important life conclusions; they put the rider in harm’s way.
The important point about Love, Brooklyn is that it is
an antidote to ghetto or family dramas. Not every film featuring communities of
colour needs to involve guns or a man dressing up as a woman. In Holder’s film,
smoothness rather than wit replaces violence as a source of gratification.
There is grace in what characters don’t mention when they speak. You won’t
hear, ‘you be needing those carrots?’ which is typically what I say at social
gatherings. However, watching the film – and I didn’t have a good time – it was
a bit like being a host waiting for the guests don’t leave.
The film’s other interesting scene involves a dinner party. Roger has
been asked to ‘rescue’ Casey from her patron, Lorna Percy (Cassandra Freeman) a
loud, pretentious but successful art collector. ‘I’ve been to other galleries,’
she tells her guests, ‘but this woman has taste’, indicating Casey. Casey has
recently lost a sale and spends her day at work listening to pneumatic drills
from workers in the next building. Developers want to buy Casey’s premises, but
it was given to her by her grandmother. Casey worked hard with her art degree
to start up a business. Nevertheless, the absence of footfall and of anything
meaningful for Casey’s assistant, Riley (Jack Haven) to do except screen calls,
is troubling. Meanwhile, Lorna is presented as geographically challenged.
‘Florence should drown,’ she insists, condemning the city. ‘Do you mean
Venice?’ someone asks. ‘No, that’s lovely.’ Casey doesn’t want to be associated
with a customer who doesn’t espouse the values of the artwork that she buys. Though
Casey doesn’t say it, rather she makes for the exit. Before they leave, Roger
and Casey stand in front of the canvas. It is colourful, turbulent – a lot of
blue and black. It was as if someone had taken the figures in a Keith Haring
picture and put them through a meat grinder.
Roger’s time is divided between Casey and Nicole. He had a deep
relationship with Casey until she kicked him out, then he zeroed in on Nicole,
a widow with a six-year-old daughter, Alice (Cadence Reese) who asks her mother
questions like, ‘why does Roger kiss you on the lips?’ and ‘when Roger leaves
your bed, can I sleep with you?’ These questions are only asked in meet-cute
relationship stories, not in real life. Roger gives Nicole what she needs, like
a sex toy who flushes the toilet after use. Holder doesn’t allow the viewer to
choose between the women, though intellectually I was rooting for Casey, who is
educated, has a work ethic and offers Roger the opportunity to make a child,
not adopt one. I wasn’t convinced that he was a good father substitute for
Alice. He lets her climb a tall tree in a public park and (one imagines) isn’t
covered by insurance.
Still, Roger invites Casey to meet him during his playdate with Alice –
the child insisted on spending more time with him for reasons that are implied
but not articulated - that is, assess him as father material. Seeing Roger with
a child gives Casey the chance to re-evaluate her ex-lover or at least verify
his climbing skills. Naturally Alice wants to know if Roger kisses Casey on the
lips too. At dinner in a later scene, Alice wants Roger to go.
In between Roger’s shuttle-bone-diplomacy, he has chats with Alan. His
buddy appears at the coffee shop in three scenes, once inside, once outside and
a second time on his own when he rebuffs an approach. You imagine these scenes
were all shot in a day, something I don’t usually think about. At this point, I
scribbled in my notes, ‘I have no emotional investment’. The most dramatic event
is the theft of Roger’s front bicycle wheel.
Towards the end, Roger discovers that he has pleased neither woman –
Casey takes a cab and tells herself, ‘don’t look back’ as Roger stands in the
middle of the street. He decides to push some of the papers near his laptop onto
the floor - never a good idea - and start writing. We hear the trite fruits of
his labour: ‘I loved my city. But then it changed. I still love it.’ He uses
simple sentences and provides no evidence. There is no beginning to his
profundity.
Pictured: Roger (André Holland, left) and Alan (Roy Wood Jr, right) discuss romance in a scene from the urban love triangle film, 'Love, Brooklyn', written by Paul Zimmerman and directed by Rachael Abigail Holder. Still courtesy of Greenwich Entertainment.
The drama’s centre of gravity shifts to Casey, who makes a consequential
decision. The film is about recognising the point when one should move on and
acquire new experiences. There is a subplot involving Steve (Joshua Boone), a
filmmaker who has a new work screening at the Metrograph, but his presence is
simply to namedrop a movie theatre as a potential host for the Love,
Brooklyn’s premiere. There is also a daytime party scene at which Nicole turns up
and offers to give Alan a massage – paid for, of course. ‘You don’t intend to
get a massage,’ Roger tells him. After some prevaricating, Alan agrees and
surrenders Nicole’s card to his friend.
The film concludes in the park and involves the promise of ice cream –
strawberry with sprinkles. Not a bad ending; the majority of relationship
dramas should end with the promise of sprinkles. In this case, ice cream
instead of the movie is a better option.
Reviewed at PictureHouse Central, Screen
Three, Monday 6 October 2025, 15:20, London Film Festival Press and Industry
screening
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