Some watch movies for the pleasure of escape choosing to remain on the surface and enjoy the splash of waves, sunlit breeze on their face, and easy access to the open seas of imagination; others must occasionally descend to the depths of the ocean floor like whales to see the man behind the myth and the means behind the magic. Don't Let Me Go, delivers on both accounts. It's precision film-making for those at both ends of the spectrum. It's authors understand well just how much human psychology is primed by strong emotion. Only after considerable effort might we begin to see hidden intent.
That being said, there is an unmistakable BAD BLOOD element in this story, particularly surrounding our narrator, Wally (Wallis) Park of sixteen years (who at the very beginning tells us that we are not going to like the ending of the story.) She is cute, funny, intelligent, daring, overbearing at times, but like most of us at that age in need of constant approval and acceptance. She is of mixed heritage with a father (John Cho) who absolutely adores her. Nevertheless when you tally up all of her interactions in the film with the exception of her father, however amicable they turn out, they all come down on the side of rejection in some shape, way, or form: for example, the white males she pursues don't necessarily shun her outright but either string her along or declare for someone else; Terms like 'crack-addict' come up in reference to her mother, who ultimately knows nothing of marital fidelity and is still struggling according to her own words; the only black male she comes across is in an openly gay relationship. And this isn't even the worst of it. There are so many more. Yet all of these illustrations enumerate classic anti-blackness of a sort, if only thinly veiled. By the end of the film, certain conclusions will give way to the belief that nature supersedes nurture -getting back to that bad blood aspect I mentioned earlier.
My only question at this point is to whom might this film be marketed? Adolescent black females of mixed heritage? Maybe, though I doubt it. Chances are even if they watch, most will remain on the surface. It is more likely to the young adult population of Asian males who despite their excellent financial status and good job prospects encounter serious obstacles to marriageability -even among the females in their own ethnic group according to at least a handful of academic papers I can cite. On such occasions, a good portion of them might begin to consider black females of mixed heritage as viable alternatives. This film, like a few others, seeks to disabuse them of that notion.
That being said, there is an unmistakable BAD BLOOD element in this story, particularly surrounding our narrator, Wally (Wallis) Park of sixteen years (who at the very beginning tells us that we are not going to like the ending of the story.) She is cute, funny, intelligent, daring, overbearing at times, but like most of us at that age in need of constant approval and acceptance. She is of mixed heritage with a father (John Cho) who absolutely adores her. Nevertheless when you tally up all of her interactions in the film with the exception of her father, however amicable they turn out, they all come down on the side of rejection in some shape, way, or form: for example, the white males she pursues don't necessarily shun her outright but either string her along or declare for someone else; Terms like 'crack-addict' come up in reference to her mother, who ultimately knows nothing of marital fidelity and is still struggling according to her own words; the only black male she comes across is in an openly gay relationship. And this isn't even the worst of it. There are so many more. Yet all of these illustrations enumerate classic anti-blackness of a sort, if only thinly veiled. By the end of the film, certain conclusions will give way to the belief that nature supersedes nurture -getting back to that bad blood aspect I mentioned earlier.
My only question at this point is to whom might this film be marketed? Adolescent black females of mixed heritage? Maybe, though I doubt it. Chances are even if they watch, most will remain on the surface. It is more likely to the young adult population of Asian males who despite their excellent financial status and good job prospects encounter serious obstacles to marriageability -even among the females in their own ethnic group according to at least a handful of academic papers I can cite. On such occasions, a good portion of them might begin to consider black females of mixed heritage as viable alternatives. This film, like a few others, seeks to disabuse them of that notion.