Residue

2020 Directed by Merawi Gerima

A young filmmaker returns home after many years away, to write a script about his childhood, only to find his neighborhood unrecognizable and his childhood friends scattered to the wind.

Obinna Nwachukwu Dennis Lindsey Taline Stewart Derron "Rizo" Scott Jacari Dye Julian Selman Tyree Wormley Melody Tally Ramon Thompson Kamau Williams Makinde Williams. Christian Wormley Jamal Graham Shirikiana Gerima Mama Hasinatu Camara Robel Kassa Nina Geremew

90 mins More details at IMDb TMDb Report this film

Popular reviews

Review by jaemart ★★★★ 4

This movie did what it did well and as a viewer my initial reaction was to fight it, and wish that it was more linear, or clearer, or straightforward
But once I accepted the dreamy-ness, I was all the way in it.
It was gorgeous and emotional and it was successful in telling the story and sending the message it wanted to convey.
There were more than a few odd scenes that sort of crinkled the nice flow of the film, cause of bad acting or unrealistic dialogue
But it is what it is and now I’m just looking forward to whatever the people a part of this are doing next, as they iron those wrinkles out.
ALSO, It’s sad when a small movie like this, especially in these times when it has no chance of going to theaters, gets pushed way back in the netflix shelf.
Review by colin... ★★★★½ 4

Nobody is talking about this.
Why is nobody talking about this?
This is the best film of the year. Hands down. Bar none. Don't believe me? Netflix, right now. 90 minutes is all you need. Every scene is more fragile than the last, until the tapestry completely falls apart at the end. So very close to perfection, if not for some unrelated flashbacks that drag on to much.
I implore you, please watch this. Merawi Gerima deserves a world of success in the future, and I cannot wait to see what he makes next.
Review by Michael Clawson ★★★★

A woozy, intimate, impressionistic debut, and a great one at that. The story is about Jay (Obinna Nwachukwu), a young filmmaker who returns from LA to his childhood neighborhood in Washington D.C. to work on a script. When he gets there, he’s troubled and disoriented by the gentrification he finds is revamping the streets on which he made the memories of his youth, and by the gun violence and drug use/dealing for which some of his old friends are doing serious time. Lyrically crafted, the gauzy cinematography, poetic transitions, and gorgeous 16mm footage of Jay’s childhood memories all run together seamlessly, and evoke the groggy disorientation brought on by the sight of the place where you grew up getting razed and taking friends down with it. I hate the thought of this movie getting lost in the clutter of Netflix. Easily one of the more exciting new voices I’ve come across in a while.
Review by MilesofSmiles 🐺 ★★★★½

Watch this! It's on Netflix.
****
As poetic and honest as what's on screen, it's what's off screen-- the White spaces, quite literally--mixed with the cocktail of memory and tinged with the style of a new cinematic voice that could not be more topical for modern American culture. The final scene (well the next to last scene) of this movie is the best filmmaking that I have seen in 2020. Fantastic debut from Merawi Gerima about gentrification in Washington DC.
Review by kevinyang ★★★

Really interesting debut by Merawi Gerima, made especially impressive given the small budget and disjointed filming process. There are many growing pains as a result, and the editing and stylistic choices often don't click emotionally with the doling out of backstory. But it's still a confident, purposeful camera that at its core is successful in taking us into the emotional headspace of gentrification. It's a film about reunions but also a film about loss, about the guilt of leaving people behind crashing up against the unfamiliarity of a place that you once knew.
GRADE: B-
Review by Steak Chalupa ★★★★½ 2

This really flew under the radar for 2020 movies cuz its one of the best of last year. Extremely impressive debut film and one of the best endings of 2020. I really loved the editing style both visually and narratively and fuck this is a heavy one man, especially the final act. Its on Netflix and is 90 minutes long so go watch this asap
Review by Gemma G ★★★★

Watching this, I felt the strong sense of a voice arriving. Someone who is steeped in traditional film language, but doesn’t have time to get fully fluent in it because the thing that needs to be said needs to be said now. And in having the guts to go for it, carves out a new vernacular.
A privilege to talk with Merawi at this point in his career.
Review by HudsonKlass

many beautiful moments in this waun
Review by Julian The Film Seeker ★★★★ 3

Colin was mostly right... This is pretty great.
Merawi Gerima's Residue is another entry in the growing expanse of films about gentrification in urbanized American communities. The film does an excellent job of putting you in the headspace of this character — a screenwriter who wants to tell the story of his fractured neighbourhood — and those around him who don't see his sudden reappearance as being all that virtuous.
Gerima's use of muffled sound and warped camera effects during flashbacks really emphasize the distance Jay has accumulated from his past, and while these sequences aren't always fully focused, they are at least intriguing. Gerima does as much as he can to add flavour to every scene, with the desaturated…
Review by Jon? ★★★★

a breath of fresh air. I was initially worried by the affiliation with Netflix, and ARRAY for that matter, but Residue is the arrival of a new and refreshing talent in American indie film; not to mention Black film in general. you won’t get the bourgeois sensibilities that plague nearly every current Black film. no pandering to audiences that couldn’t care less about them unless they appeal to their faux-woke sensibilities.
instead, what we get here is a bold yet subdued experimental drama focusing on a young Black man returning to his old DC neighbourhood, undergoing that which has plagued many a Black city for decades (and will no doubt continue): rapid, unsparing gentrification. unlike a certain feckless and annoying…
Review by Johann Rucker ★★★

Time, not as a river, but as a puddle of rain on the sidewalk.
Review by Pond ★★★★½

I don’t really have any new commentary on this one on rewatch I think it really feels like a personal essay about an obligation to your history vs an obligation to yourself and it’s made in a way where like I can’t really judge the conclusions of the characters because it’s so real and you can tell it’s just a man trying to work through his own personal issues through a movie.

Recent reviews

Review by Mtume ★★★½

Man...when Residue works, it’s fantastic. It posses an overall encasing that is exploratory in deep sensory ways, wrapping you in this experience of coming home and sifting through the residue of the many happenings you missed or have forgotten. The tonal vibe of it makes for a strong cinema, and Gerima is definitely his fathers son using this style of open frame and open space to capture a world linear and non-linear existence. It’s a dynamic way to explore Blackness and refreshing. And how it paints whiteness as this specter constantly creeping in, often faceless and menacing is awesome. This is how so many Black folks experience white people and it’s captured amazingly. I also have to applaud him for…
Review by nickgwagner ★★★★½

dreamy, contemplative, stunning, at times mesmerizing. Absolutely one of the, if not the, best debut features of the year. Equal parts narrative and experimental, dreamlike visual poem, it explores gentrification at the most intimate level, but also so much more than that.
Only 90 minutes long, on Netflix; it's a must-watch.
"You brought the only weapon that you had. Who were you about to shoot, Jay? Did you think a script could make a difference? You thought a film could save us? Or did you see yourself as an archaeologist coming to unearth our bones from the concrete?
Review by Steve Erickson ★★★½

Director Merawi Gerima avoids the neo-neo-realism that many filmmakers would use to tell the story of Jay (Obinna Nwachkwu), a screenwriter who returns to his childhood neighborhood with hopes of telling its story. The opening scene depicts a massive street party where a rap song with the chorus "If you represent the 'hood, put your hands up" serves as the soundtrack. It's unclear at first exactly when this is taking place, but the next scene shows the gentrification of that neighborhood, as a white guy tells Jay to turn down the music on his car radio. His memories, told through dreamy 16mm intervals with distorted sound, mingle with the present day. The sound design helps build a world not fully…
Review by HudsonKlass

many beautiful moments in this waun
Review by gachiiiii ★★★★★

I’ll never forget that forest scene when he visits his friend. 5 stars for that scene alone 💕💕
Review by Victoria

La escena en la que va a visitar a uno de sus amigos de la infancia que está en la cárcel me pareció de las cosas más tristes y logradas que he visto en el 2020.
Súper indie al estilo Florida Project. O sea, no la vean si están muy bajón.
Review by Brandon Sparks ★★★★

Residue is a beautifully haunting and poignant story from first-time director Merawi Gerima. In terms of content, I might compare it to Blindspotting and The Last Black Man in San Francisco because it tackles gentrification in a unique way. But surprisingly, Residue feels even more personal and experimental than those two fantastic films. Gerima is able to create a film that has the vibe of a documentary because of the rawness of the filmmaking.
Residue is about a young filmmaker, Jay, who returns to his neighborhood in Washington D.C. in hopes of finding inspiration in his childhood environment for a film he wants to make about the neighborhood. When he returns, he finds that his predominately black neighborhood has become…
Review by Elenore Wade ★★★½

A little too iMovie. A little too on-the-nose. Still gorgeous and somehow not a documentary.
Review by Narsh ★★★★

what a fucking debut (from everyone involved I guess??) I loved the use of distorted - and sometimes crystal clear - memories, the self assured storytelling and how it guides the viewer towards the pieces that shape Jay’s current psyche, and the general transcendental nature of the whole thing. All the performances were so damn human (moved me to tears more than once). And even the sound editing was hard. Despite some heavy-handedness and a few contrived plot points, this was a highly effective meditation on place and purpose, racism and gentrification, childhood and death. Two sequences were particularly devastating to me: the montage after Jay gets his mugged, and when he finally visits Dion. This is easily one of the best movies to come out in 2020. I need to stop watching shit with such hopeless endings tho smfh it’s like my fourth one in as many days and life already depressing as is
Review by Carly

Residue is the first feature film of DC native director and writer Merawi Gerima. The film lays out the psychological impact alongside the material change brought by white people to DC. It flips back and forth between the childhood of a boy growing up in DC and his return home after years away. Poignant and, as other reviews have stated, haunting.
Review by nic ★★★★

where is demetrius? :(
Review by Owen Morley ★★★★

Great Directorial debut and an absolute hidden gem on Netflix. Goes through themes of nostalgia, wayfinding, and the evils of gentrification. Loved all the experimental shots that make what seems like an amateur shot to some, create something artistic and polished to fit the community.
WATCH THIS ON NETFLIX ITS ONLY 90 MINUTES