Sollers Point (2017)

Directed by: Matthew Porterfield | 101 minutes | drama | Actors: McCaul Lombardi, Jim Belushi, Tom Guiry, Zazie Beets, Marin Ireland, Brieyon Bell-El, Everleigh Brenner, Lynn Cohen, Imani Hakim, Kazy Tauginas, Wass Stevens, Alyssa Bresnahan, Ashley Shelton

Baltimore can be a tough city to grow up in. We already saw this in the sublime television series “The Wire”, in which we were able to view the city’s drug problem from different angles. Filmmaker Matthew Porterfield, himself born and raised in Baltimore, also sees an ideal backdrop for his films in his hometown. He prefers to focus on the problems young people face. For example, ‘Hamilton’ (2006) centers on a young couple – he’s 20, she’s 17 – who had an unprepared baby, and in both ‘Putty Hill’ (2010) and ‘I Used to Be Darker’ (2013) disrupted families. Porterfield loves his city, but doesn’t shy away from asking critical questions and keeping a close eye on things. In ‘Sollers Point’ we dive into the suburbs of Baltimore, where unemployment, racial problems and crime are a serious problem. At the center is Keith (played with full conviction by the relatively unknown McCaul Lombardi), a 24-year-old man who has just served a prison sentence. He was confined to home for a year because of an ankle bracelet, but now he can go out into the wide world again. He is determined to improve his life, but that is not so easy, we soon notice.

It is not clear why he ever received his prison sentence. But we soon discover that Keith has a short fuse and lives in dubious environments. His intentions to permanently work his way out of the criminal world are absolutely present. But is he strong enough to take that leap and resist the temptations of the fast money? His home situation is certainly not too hopeful: Keith lives with his father Carol (Jim Belushi), with whom the bond is not exactly warm and cordial. His mother appears to have left the family long ago and Keith’s other relatives, including his sister (Marin Ireland) live in another state. It is not entirely clear why there is so much conflict between father and son. Also with his ex Courtney (Zazie Beetz) it is no longer butter. She doesn’t want anything to do with him anymore, a fact that he can hardly stomach. Criminal types offer to ‘help him on his way’, but Keith isn’t waiting for that, with the result that one of them (Tom Guiry) continues to harass and harass him to the limit. Not only do the people close to him turn against Keith, the angry outside world doesn’t exactly welcome him with open arms either. He has serious plans to go to school, but if he arrives 45 minutes late for the first lesson, he has already smashed his own glass. Then off to work, but the quick money from the drug trade still turns out to be irresistible to him. For a moment a new love seems to blossom with art student Aurora (Maya Martinez), but she too disappears like snow in the sun when she realizes that Keith cannot leave his dark past behind.

The star of ‘Sollers Point’ is McCaul Lombardi, who previously appeared in Andrea Arnold’s ‘American Honey’ (2016). Behind those beautiful steel-blue eyes hides an enormous rawness, complexity and intensity. Lombardi’s Keith, on the one hand, shows remorse for what he has left behind, and true intentions to change his life, but on the other, is too vain and self-righteous to bring about those changes himself. More than a portrait of a young man torn by his past, ‘Sollers Point’ is a characterization of the neighborhood where Keith lives and the unwritten laws and regulations that govern it. It is not easy to get rid of the stamp of convicted criminal anyway, but in a deprived slum of Baltimore it is especially difficult to change course. In addition, Keith also asks the question: how much does he really want to improve his life? Because his behavior is quite contradictory. Although Porterfield leaves quite a few questions unanswered, and Keith regularly makes incomprehensible choices, between our frustrations we still feel an emotional connection with this boy. The emphasis is on how vulnerable he is as a recently released petty thief, as danger lurks everywhere. He avoids the people who want the best for him. To the silent sadness of especially father Carol and ex-girlfriend Courtney. He prefers to confide in others, but whether they provide him with the right advice remains to be seen. His encounters with an expired junkie (Alyssa Bresnahan) show that he is indeed able to give to others and provide the necessary emotional depth. On the other hand, the rendezvous with the quasi-poetic drug kingpin ‘Mom’ (Michael Rogers), from whom the desperate Keith asks for advice, feels rather forced in an otherwise realistically written and filmed story. And the ending of the film is rather unsatisfactory.

‘Sollers Point’ is a raw, realistic portrait of not only a former prison client with a pang of conscience and struggling to pick up his life again, but also a penetrating sketch of an underprivileged urban district where poverty, unemployment, racial inequality and crime deeply affect society. hold. Especially thanks to the excellent acting by McCaul Lombardi in particular – a true discovery! – we are drawn into life in the Sollers Point neighborhood, no matter how far the situation is from us.