Already Gone is a 2019 drama about a boy who uses graffiti to get through his hard life, looking to change it all with a forbidden woman.
On the rough and tumble streets of Brooklyn, frustrated and lonely teenager Robinson (Tyler Dean Flores) finds the only way to escape his life is with hip hop music and graffiti. He lives with his stepfather Martin (Seann William Scott), an abusive man with no tolerance for the young man he’s charged with raising, regularly beating him. Robinson is infatuated with Keesha (Justine Skye), Martin’s live-in girlfriend (barely a few years older than the boy), an exotic dancer he is now trying to pimp, something Keesha doesn’t want. Robinson, in a moment of panic, steals Martin’s horde of cash and with Keesha, runs away, heading west with Martin soon in chase.
There are great intentions at the heart of writer and director Christopher Kenneally‘s latest effort, hoping to mix a coming-of-age story with a standard road trip odyssey. These two misfits don’t really know what they are doing, only that they need to do it, fast. With little set up, the brief opening giving a momentary peek into Robinson’s troubling life, we witness right from the start how terrible a man Martin is and how much Robinson loves Keesha, or at least is feeling something he shouldn’t. She recognizes this attraction and while in New York, treats the teenager like a refuge, but once on the road tends to flirt with him unmercifully. You begin to see right away, despite an age difference, who is the more mature … and where it’s headed.
Trouble is not much of it is all that convincing, though these things hardly are in movies, the pair doing things that allow them to keep moving forward despite implausibility. Kennealy is after lowkey authenticity, skipping flair and hyperbole in favor of a more watered down account that certainly is homegrown but not all that heavy. The movie has a specific connection to make and sticks to that plan without much deviation. You just know that between the two of them, they’ll make it easier than it should be for trouble to find them.
Either way, this culminates in Colorado where Robinson is spotted by a restaurant owner named Edwin (Shiloh Fernandez), who thinks the boy’s art will drawn in customers, the runaways finally getting a sense they can relax, even as they remain tested. It’s here where Robinson at last must confront the turbulent emotions he’s been harboring for Keesha as truths are revealed … and his real path in all of this. The lack of momentum up to this point, which is significant, does find some emotional punch in the third act, where Kennealy works to build suspense as the pair deal with a new reality. It’s a better ending to a stiff start though is perhaps intentionally unconventional, keeping this static for most of its runtime, never quite landing the blows it swings for, even with a strong ending (made less hard hitting with its generic, repeated somber piano). Still, Flores is very good and Scott, while limited, does what he needs to, making this an unusual take on a familiar story. Keanu Reeves, who worked with Kennealy on his 2012 documentary Side by Side, serves as producer as well, giving this some notable backbone, and fans of purposefully-paced Indie dramas will find good reason to give this a go.