Goldie (2019)

Directed by: Sam de Jong | 88 minutes | drama | Actors: Slick Woods, Alanna Renee Tyler-Tompkins, Jazmyn C Dorsey, George Sample III, Danny Hoch, Marsha Stephanie Blake, Gbenga Akinnagbe, Khris Davis, Edwina Findley Dickerson, Angela Griszell, Jsoe Rodriguez, ASAP Ferg

Sam de Jong (known for ‘Prins’, 2015) makes his first American film with ‘Goldie’ and stays close to his debut with the story. Main character Goldie is a bit older than Ayoub from ‘Prince’, but like him does not have an easy home situation and a head full of dreams.

Goldie, who has just turned eighteen (confidently portrayed by model Slick Woods, who actually plays a version of her own childhood) is sure: she will become famous. She just needs to show how well she can dance. The community center performance is just the beginning. She wants to play in a music video of a local rapper and does everything she can to participate. But there are quite a few bears on the road.

Goldie has two younger sisters, Sherri and Supreme. She lives with them, her mother and her mother’s drug-dealing boyfriend in a shelter. Her income (she works in a department store in the clothing department) is about the only stable factor in this family, but because she has been late five times in the past month, she is fired. Then her mother is also arrested and taken away by the police. “Keep them away from childcare,” her mother Goldie calls out, and that’s exactly what Goldie holds dear. She takes her sisters in tow, traveling from one acquaintance or family member (who are always introduced by Sherrie or Supreme) to another, hoping to find temporary shelter and stay out of the hands of youth care. And meanwhile, she is preparing for her big break in the music video. There are people who have less full agendas and who still get overworked.

‘Goldie’ is bursting at the seams with colours, especially Goldie’s fascination with the color yellow works wonders. Nicholas Winding Refn would be proud. However, something gnaws: Goldie is sometimes a barrel full of contradictions: as a protective big sister, she gets angry when drugs are dealt in the vicinity of her sisters, but if one of them sees Goldie stealing money, it doesn’t matter. Streetwise, she walks through New York at night completely relaxed, but is naive when it comes to earning money, the cost of living and the good will of other people. However, thanks to Slick Woods’ charismatic portrayal, you cannot take your eyes off the screen and you will not be left unmoved by the story of this manipulative but at the same time uninhibited young lady.