Producers: Joe Pirro and Minhal Baig   Director: Minhal Baig   Screenplay: Minhal Baig   Cast: Blake Cameron James, Gian Knight Ramirez, S. Epatha Merkerson, Lil Rel Howery, Jurnee Smollett, Ora Jones and Charles Jenkins   Distributor: Sony Pictures Classics

Grade: C+

Minhal Baig’s coming-of-age drama, set in Chicago’s notoriously crime-ridden Cabrini-Green high-rise public housing project in 1992 (the fiftieth anniversary of the hopeful opening of its first units) is, contrary to what one might expect, not primarily gritty and grim (though there are moments that can be characterized as such), but lyrical and poetic.  In fact, one could make a case for considering it an urban version of David Gordon Green’s “George Washington” (2000), which was set in rural North Carolina but also spun a “growing up” scenario and embraced a similarly dreamlike style with occasional dark interventions.  Like that film, “We Grown Up” also has a habit of becoming gauzy and pretentious as it makes the point that what one should remember about the Cabrini-Green development isn’t its failure as urban planning, but the people who struggled to make a life there.

The youngsters at the film’s center are Malik (Blake Cameron James) and Eric (Gian Knight Ramirez), inseparable best friends both in the classroom and on the playground, where they and the other kids practice “flying” by jumping from a height onto a mound of pilfered mattresses and pillows, just one instance of the script’s somewhat heavy-handed symbolism.  Malik’s family includes his hard-working mother Dolores (Jurnee Smollett), his widowed grandmother Anita (S. Epatha Merkerson) and a younger sister; Eric lives with his recently-widowed father Jason (Lil Rel Howery) and an older sister, Amber (Avery Holliday).  Dolores has a job in the payroll department of a business, where she watches others promoted over her, while Anita remembers how different things had been at the projects when she and her husband moved to Chicago from Mississippi; Jason works at a pizza joint, tries to teach his son the economics of getting by, and expects Amber to watch over her younger brother.

It’s a time of increasing turmoil at Cabrini-Green.  The killing of a seven-year old boy in a shooting while he was walking with his mother causes a public outcry and a police response that involves random screening of people and even unannounced apartment searches.  The funeral makes the boys, as well as their elders, uneasy about the precariousness of things.  Dolores applies for a promotion, only to learn that it would involve uprooting the family and moving to Peoria.  Yet she’s torn between staying and leaving.

Malik, meanwhile, grows dreamier, imagining living in a two-story house with a garden.  When the boys stare at a cracked ceiling, he suggests that the flickers of light from the other side resemble stars, as if the sky offered them escape.  And when the boys decide to ditch school when the teacher plays an especially dull educational film, they run off to the Art Institute, where, in addition to taking in a Seurat exhibition, they intently examine Walter Ellison’s 1935 canvas “Train Station,” which depicts a segregated Southern terminal in which “coloreds” are boarding trains headed north while well-heeled whites, on the other side of the platform, mount cars going elsewhere—part of the Great Migration in which Anita took part.  At one point it’s observed that “There’s poetry in everything,” and more and more Baig indulges the idea in her images.

She also feels compelled to make the message of her film overly explicit, most notably in a scene in which the boys, peering through a chain fence, shout to those on the other side—police, presumably, but also society as a whole—“We exist!”  It’s only the most obvious instance in which Malik and Eric sound ore like adults than ten-year olds. And yet while at such points the film becomes uncomfortably heavy-handed, James and Ramirez remain unaffected and natural.  Smollett, Merkerson and Howery are all excellent as well, capturing the tenderness they feel toward the children as well as their concerns about sheltering them from harm while making ends meet.   Production designer Merje Veski and cinematographer Pat Scola have the difficult task of balancing the reality of the surroundings with the more graceful perspective of the children but succeed more often than not, while editor Stephanie Filo gives the film an unforced, deceptively idyllic pacing and Jay Wadley contributes a score that aims for soulful nostalgia.

Ultimately, of course, “We Grown Now” must come to terms with the separation that often marks the onset of maturity as Dolores decides on her job choice.  In doing so, it closes with another instance in which it exchanges gentleness for the obvious as Eric, who’s become moody and depressed over his friend’s imminent departure, imparts to Malik the secret of success at flying.  It’s unfortunately typical of this generally insightful film that at too many points it strains for profundity when its simpler moments prove much more affecting.         

Producer: Christian Sander   Director: R.J. Daniel Hanna   Screenplay: R.J. Daniel Hanna and Christian Sander   Cast: Matthew Modine, Cynthia Kaye McWilliams, Jahking Guillory, Jackson Kelly, Zach Robbins, Damien Diaz, Leslie David Baker, Sean Astin, Charles Ambrose, Jaxon Goldenberg, Judah Mackey and Patrick Anthony Mullen  Distributor: Blue Fox Entertainment

Grade: C+

There’s a cable channel quality to this inspirational sports movie based on the work of Greg Townsend, a metalwork instructor and long-time cycling coach at Ridge View Youth Services Center, a medium-security correctional school for young offenders run by the Rite of Passage program near Denver until it was disaccredited by the state in 2021.  During his tenure there Townsend led some of the inmates on cycling trips, and “Hard Miles” imagines one occurring just as the campus is under review for possible closure and Townsend (played by Matthew Modine, looking fit) is struggling to cope with the imminent death of his father, who’d abused him as a child and from whom he’s been estranged for many years; his incarcerated brother Greg is telephoning constantly, urging him to visit the old man in the hospice before it’s too late to mend fences.  (Periodic flashbacks featuring Jaxon Goldenberg and Judah Mackey as the boys and Charles Ambrose as their father Scott, show the family’s fraught relationships, with Scott always pressuring Greg to be tough.)   

Amid all the turmoil Townsend, a cycling enthusiast despite joint problems, is looking forward to his upcoming two-week vacation, during which he plans to peddle the 762 miles from Denver to the Grand Canyon.  When Skip (gregarious Leslie David Baker), the school’s harried director, asks him instead to take some of the young men on a backpack hike, Greg instead suggests that he take the four he’s been working with in his class on his cycling trip.  Since he’s sometimes rather short with them in criticizing their work (or in dealing with fights in the hallways), Skip agrees only if house psychologist Haddie (cheery Cynthia McWilliams) accompanies them in the school van. Townsend cajoles local bike shop owner Speedy (reliable Sean Astin) to act as “team” sponsor.

So Greg is off with his charges: Woolbright (Jahking Guillory), a kid with a grudge against the world, just back for a second stay at the school; skinny, bespectacled Smink (Jackson Kelly), weakened by an eating disorder; Atencio (Damien Diaz), regularly in trouble because of his short fuse; and Rice (Zach Robbins), a beefy fellow who takes longer to explode.  There follows, of course, a series of mini-crises involving bickering among the boys and Townsend’s annoyance with them, continuing calls from Greg’s brother about his dying father, simple exhaustion, and the occasional issues when one or another of the young men fail to follow instructions and cause problems.  The looming threat of Ridge View’s closure—which would mean cutting the trip short—is a sword of Damocles hanging over it all. 

Of course, though word of the closure comes, by then Greg has decided to visit his father (Patrick Anthony Mullen) for a tearful reconciliation and his four charges have bonded and become so obsessed with making it to the Canyon—with Smink, having overcome his refusal to eat, leading the way and Woolbright the inevitable last holdout before he relents—that they even sabotage Haddie’s van to ensure she can’t prevent their unauthorized ride.  But you can be certain that even though the police get involved, all six of them are united at the Canyon, lessons are learned about teamwork and mutual respect, and there’s a relatively happy ending even though the school will be shut down as a result of the action of rigid bureaucrats and the students sent to institutions with more stringent rules.

This is obviously a formulaic piece, with a script by R.J. Daniel Hanna and Christian Sander and direction by Hanna that are hardly the last word in subtlety.  But Modine, McWilliams, Baker and Astin (in what amounts to a glorified cameo) all give agreeable performances (in Modine’s case, something more than that), and the young riders—especially Guillory and Kelly, who play the two better developed characters—are all fine, even if they appear rather old for their roles.

Add to that the pleasantly scenic locations (many in California rather than the states the characters traverse), solid widescreen cinematography by Mack Fisher, editing by Evan Schrodek that’s unhurried but not sloppy, and music by Andrew Johnson that underscores the emotional ups and downs without getting overbearing about it, and you have a clichéd but well-meaning coming-of-age cycling drama that will warm the hearts of viewers willing to overlook its predictability even as it will irritate those who won’t.