We Grown Now

Minhal Baig's 2024 film takes place in the Cabrini-Green housing project in Chicago in 1992. Malik and Eric are best friends who skip school, roam between the towers, jump onto a pile of mattresses they have built and use the city as their own playground. The film does not define childhood through deprivation; it puts the two boys' imagination and friendship at the centre. The shooting of a child in the community and the police sweeps that follow change things, and Malik's mother begins considering work in another city, raising the possibility that the friends will be separated. Baig shows Cabrini-Green not as the crime scene of public discourse but as a place where people lived and which was later demolished. The camerawork is calm and attentive. Who it's for: viewers who like slow drama about childhood. Who it's not for: anyone expecting the plot to move quickly; the film is built on feeling.