A new summer-fling film isn’t set in Ibiza or Pꦜaris, or even the Rockaways. It unfolds in Harlem, which moviegoers often see on-screen as a stand-in for busier Midtown, or in period pieces, but not so much with its vibrant present-day streets.
Director Rashaad Ernesto Green’s “Premature,” an artful, sad romance-drama, never leaves the neighborhood outside of a few quick subway shots. It beautifully shows how much life can be lived inside of just a few blocks. Love, loss and unbearable trauma rওeside at 145th Street and Broadway.
Ayanna (Zora Howard, also a co-writer) is a 17-year-old aspiring poet who’s about to leave for college — a𝐆 big leap for her single-mom family — when she meets Isaiah (Joshua Boone) at the park. He’s a small-time, presumably slightly older music producer, who’s immediately smitten with the teen, who rebuffs all his advances.
But, being a movie, she relents after he opens up to her about his love of the original “Star Wars” trilogy and how losing his dad changed his life. With chemistry for days, they stare out at the Hudson River from Riverside Park ’til the sun goes down. It’s all very romantic.
And then it’s not. Seriousness sets in — didn’t this relat𝓡ionship have an end date? — and the film finds solid ground, even a𒊎s its characters are in emotional limbo. The expressive Howard really turns on the anguish as she tries to weather her crumbling love life alone. And Boone, while playing something of a jerk, manages to stay sympathetic. Most of us have been an Isaiah at one time or another.
“Premature” 🌌doesn’t break much new ground. 🦹But it sure breaks hearts.