Amazon.com
In
Our Song, director Jim McKay takes the same concerns as in his debut,
Girls Town--friendship, poverty, and suicide--and crafts a superior film. While
Girls Town felt like a somewhat privileged look at underprivileged life,
Our Song feels as if it were written by the young women themselves: Lanisha (
Lift's Kerry Washington), Joy (Anna Simpson), and Maria (Melissa Martinez). In fact, the trio really was involved with Brooklyn marching band the Jackie Robinson Steppers when McKay recruited them to star in this Michael Stipe-produced effort, and the marching sequences in the film provide a rousing counterpoint to the difficulties with which the girls are grappling. When one of the 15-year-olds discovers she's pregnant, already-frayed relationships are strained to the breaking point.
Our Song always rings true and is all the more admirable--and affecting--for its refusal to conform to the conventions of most Hollywood teen movies.
--Kathleen C. Fennessy
Video Description
"Our Song" follows three friends, Lanisha (Kerry Washington), Maria (Melissa Martinez) and Joycelyn (Anna Simpson) through the hot August streets of Crown Heights, Brooklyn. During the closing weeks of summer, these girls endure rigorous rehearsals with their sixty-piece marching band, while biding their time shoplifting, daydreaming, flirting with boys, and confronting the rising tensions within their own friendships. As the small moments and dramas that mean nothing and everything to a young girl navigating her way into adulthood start to accumulate, the girls and their friendships change forever. Through it all their song remains one of hopes and dreams. Some day, yeah, we'll get it together, and we'll get it all done ...
