Michael Phillips: ‘We Grown Now,’ about a Cabrini-Green boyhood friendship, will open the Chicago International Film Fest. A new Chicago classic?
CHICAGO — The U.S. premiere of writer-director Minhal Baig’s “We Grown Now” — a gentle, powerful coming-of-age gem set in 1992, detailing the friendship of two boys growing up in Chicago’s Cabrini-Green housing project — opens the Chicago International Film Festival Oct. 11, festival officials announced Wednesday.
Much more, I’m guessing, will be written about Baig’s third feature in the coming weeks. An initial viewing suggests it’s a vital and beautifully acted addition to the roster of Chicago movies.
“We Grown Now” makes its world premiere at the early September Toronto International Film Festival. The Rogers Park native’s previous feature, the 2019 “Hala,” is currently streaming on Apple TV+; it’s a much-admired story of a Muslim Pakistani teenager navigating her traditional home life while finding her way socially, and sexually, among her peers.
Baig filmed parts of “Hala” in Rogers Park, and at Northside College Prep high school, which she attended a few years earlier. Her new film is centered in the now-demolished Cabrini-Green high-rises, a controversial product of the Chicago Housing Authority.
Today only the original, low-slung mid-20th century Cabrini Rowhouses remain; “We Grown Now” used that location for exterior scenes, as did the 2021 remake of “Candyman.”
Baig’s story focuses on 10-year-old Malik (Blake Cameron James), whose mother Delores (Jurnee Smollett) and Mississippi-born grandmother (S. Epatha Merkerson) face a life-altering decision to move, or not, after an escalation in violence, fatalities and mistrust. One scene, powerfully rendered, depicts a swarm of Chicago police going door to door, searching for drugs. “They’re treating us like we’re criminals,” Smollett’s character says at one point, under her breath. “Like roaches in our own home.”
Much of “We Grown Now” follows Malik and his friend Eric (Gian Knight Ramirez) as they make the most of an ever-tightening and increasingly scrutinized life in Cabrini-Green. In one sequence, the boys cut school, ride the “L”, visit the Art Institute and begin to see what’s beyond their everyday horizons. It recalls “Ferris Beuller’s Day Off” in that respect, though in every other way, Baig’s picture is worlds away from John Hughes territory.
A narrative synopsis of “We Grown Now” suggests one gut punch after another. But like “Hala,” and hints of her debut feature, “1 Night” (2016), Baig’s latest operates in a more reflective vein of poetic realism, somewhat reminiscent of the richly imagined work of Barry Jenkins (“Moonlight,” “If Beale Street Could Talk”).
It’ll make a fine opener for the 59th edition of Chicago’s biggest film festival. “We Grown Now” will screen at the Music Box Theatre. Most of this year’s festival screenings are scheduled for a venue new to the festival: The AMC NewCity 14, formerly the ArcLight, at 1500 N. Clybourn Ave.
As it has in recent years, the festival expands its geographical reach with screenings and events elsewhere, including the Gene Siskel Film Center downtown, the Chicago History Museum at the southern tip of Lincoln Park, the Hamilton Park Cultural Center in Englewood, Pilsen’s Harrison Park, Austin’s La Follette Park, the Logan Center for the Arts on the University of Chicago campus in Hyde Park, and the Museum of Contemporary Art.
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“We Grown Now” screens Oct. 11 at the Music Box Theatre, 3733 N. Southport Ave.; tickets on sale Sept. 5. Full lineup of the Chicago International Film Festival will be announced Sept. 18; passes now on sale at chicagofilmfestival.com.
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