Cities and their dwellers evolve and grow in ways that are both richly intertwined and beautifully complex. In her gentle, timeless and quietly absorbing debut feature, Love, Brooklyn, director Rachael Abigail Holder wisely portrays such winds of change in her beloved Brooklyn, through the lived-in stories of three unique Brooklynites, as imagined by screenwriter Paul Zimmerman. While they grapple with the shifts that unfold in their own lives and relationships, the city spaces that they lovingly exist in go through subtle transformations of their own. As the easygoing writer Roger, producer and star André Holland is one third of that trio, soulfully biking around the city, working his way towards an impossible deadline. He is in an initially casual, and gradually deepening relationship with the confident and no-nonsense Nicole (DeWanda Wise), who dotingly raises her daughter as a single mother and navigates the emotional challenges of the recent loss of her husband. Elsewhere, the free-spirited Casey (Nicole Beharie) tries to decide on the future of her treasured art gallery, while steering her complicated camaraderie with her ex Roger—one that feels just a little more than a friendship. Specific in the sophisticated details of its characters, deeply immersive through its astute narrative and placid rhythms, and attentive to the nuances of love and friendship, Love, Brooklyn is both a tender ode to the cities we hold dear, and a fresh addition to the great tradition of compulsively rewatchable New York movies to luxuriate in.
