Jason's Lyric

Doug McHenry's 1994 film is set in Houston and follows two brothers whose paths split. Jason works in an electronics store and tries to hold the family together; his brother Joshua moves steadily closer to violence and crime. The distance between them goes back to something they both witnessed as children. Jason meeting Lyric opens another possibility in the film: leaving the city and building a different life. It takes the neighbourhood narrative common in Black American cinema of the period and sets a love story inside it, presenting the romance not as escapist fantasy but as a real choice. The ease between Allen Payne and Jada Pinkett is its strongest element. Who it's for: viewers who like nineties American independent film and drama built on family tragedy. Who it's not for: anyone who will find the direct depiction of violence and trauma heavy going.