Danielle Solzman
Dreams may come and go but what A Boy, A Girl, A Dream ultimately seeks to do is remind us to never give up on our dreams.
A love story about dreams develops when Los Angeles club promoter Cass (Omari Hardwick) meets midwestern visitor Free (Meagan Good). The two of them come from very different worlds. Cass comes from an environment filled with both drugs and alcohol. Free, on the other hand, is still reeling from a breakup. Once the two meet, it soon becomes clear that they were meant to meet each other.
Together, the two of them are able to push each other to remember what they wanted out of life to begin with. That this takes place on Election Night doesn’t matter. I guess it does but only to an extent. For everyone else at the watch party, only Cass and Free seem to realize what’s happening in their world. All you have to do is see how everyone in this film reacts to the election footage on TV. Most of them appear to not show a care in the world. This is crazy!
It appears that there just may be a deeper meaning to the setting the film on election night. Neither Cass nor Free are shy about their feelings. Maybe it’s because of the political environment changing on them over night, but they seek to bring out the best in each other.
Cass would rather be a filmmaker but the whole club promotion thing keeps getting in the way. Similarly, Free would rather be a DJ but she caved into family pressure and become a lawyer instead.
Screenwriters Qasim Basir and Samantha Tanner have given us an interesting story. Maybe its a deeper meaning but they seek to remind us not to give up on our dreams. Moreover, cinematographer Steven Holleran follows both Cass and Free through the evening. It’s impressive cinematography and supposedly there were very few shots longer than a take.
While A Boy, A Girl, A Dream may take place on the night of the 2016 presidential election, the news serves more so as a backdrop than anything else. There’s some election coverage on the television but to be honest, this is the extent of how we know the film is set on Election Night.
Set amid a changing nation, the chemistry between the leads help A Boy, A Girl, A Dream find a love story within an ever-changing world.
DIRECTOR: Qasim Basir
SCREENWRITERS: Qasim Basir and Samantha Tanner
CAST: Omari Hardwick, Meagan Good, Jay Ellis, Dijon Talton, Wesley Jonathan, Affion Crockett
