The Movie: Raise Your Hand
The Director: Jessica Rae
The Cast: Jearnest Corchado, Hanani Taylor, Joel Steingold, Gregory Scott
Cummins, DaJuan Johnson
The Story: Gia and her best friend, Lila, try to survive a rough childhood in
a neighborhood where every kid has a sad story to tell. As teenagers, their
problems become more complicated, and the stakes get raised.
The Review:
When I watched this movie, I found it hard to believe that this was Jessica
Rae's first feature film as a director because the story telling is bold and
it feels like such a polished work of art. It's clear that this is a very
personal project for the director, who also wrote the story, as it covers some
pretty heavy and intense topics that are as relevant today as when the movie
first went into production several years ago. From the Me Too movement to the
2020 protests against police brutality and everything in between, there is
something in this movie that shows how all of those issues affect real people.
Jearnest Corchado and Hanani Taylor star in the movie as Gia and Lila
respectively and each of them manage to provide incredibly authentic
performances which is even more impressive when you realize this is the first
feature film for each of them. Their characters' friendship is put to the test
in just about every way and how the two handle everything they are asked to do
both together and individually is a testament to their abilities and also to
the director's eye for casting her movie. Oh and I didn't even mention that
both of these women are equally talented singers and Taylor even wrote and
performed the title song for the film.
You ever watch a movie and think to yourself that the person you are seeing on
screen is destined for stardom? May I
present to you Jearnest Corchado. This young woman who, as I mentioned plays
Gia in the movie is an amazingly talented woman who of course can act but she
is also a singer and I imagine anything else she decides to put her mind to.
For her to take on a role of this caliber and make it her own with a knock out
performance is an achievement for anyone let alone someone who is taking on
the lead role in their first feature film. Just watch the movie, you'll see
what I mean.
As I mentioned, this movie covers a lot of challenging topics and the filmmaking team takes great care in not presenting it in an
overly graphic way which makes it feel more like a dramatic documentary than
a stylized narrative feature. I think that comes from Rae's ability to put her characters on
screen in such an intimate way and she puts you right there with them to where
you feel what they are going through in real time rather than feeling like you
are watching something that happened from a safe distance.
I think that intimacy is what made this movie work so well for me. It's a very
authentic story that opens up a lot of conversation within the movie, inside
your own mind, and hopefully among friends, families, and other groups of
people. These are topics that need to be discussed and the movie lays it all
out in a way that creates opportunity for discussion. Every single character
in this movie has a story to tell and I believe any viewer will find
themselves in at least one if not multiple characters because we have all been
through what we see these kids, and the adults for that matter, go through.
The Verdict:
Raise Your Hand raises relevant topics and hands them to the audience
in a way that is eye opening and opens up possibility for conversation. This
movie is basically the best, most hard hitting after school special you will
ever see. Congratulations to writer, director, producer Jessica Rae on an
achievement that has been years in the making and will have an impact for
years to come.
The Interview:
No comments :
Post a Comment