Everyone remembers their first brush with death. Whether you’re 5 or fortunate enough to be 75, coming face-to-face with your own mortality for the first time is an experience that remains permanently seared into your mind; you can remember where you were, what you were thinking, and, probably, being engulfed in a new kind of sadness that you don’t quite understand.
That’s certainly the case for Malik (Blake James Cameron) and Eric (Gian Knight Ramirez), the two children at the heart of We Grown Now, a fresh, empathetic new indie that lands in theaters April 26 after receiving a warm critical reception at last fall’s Toronto International Film Festival.
In the fall of 1992, Malik and Eric spend their days enjoying their lives and close-knit friendship as residents in Chicago’s Cabrini-Green public housing complex. But the terrible thing about idyllic childhood joy is that there’s a countdown clock on how long it lasts. Innocence slips away faster than we can anticipate, so when a horrific tragedy rocks Cabrini-Green, Eric and Malik find their friendship challenged and the simplicity of their daily lives forever altered.
