Allswell In New York review by Bobby Blakey
Films focused on real life themes tend to offer up plenty of options for pretty much every genre you can imagine. The latest, Allswell in New York features a great cast including Liza Colón-Zayas, Daphne Rubin-Vega, Bobby Cannavale, Elizabeth Rodriguez and Max Casella from director Ben Snyder, but does it offer up something unique to life in New York or will it be a family struggle not worth watching?
Allswell in New York follows three Nuyorican sisters navigating the daunting life challenges of single motherhood, career, and family, all while finding humor and solace within the bond of sisterhood.
This is one of those films that I knew nothing of going in so had zero expectations. I love the cast here and was hoping for something funny, powerful and heartwarming dealing with their family and maybe a little chaos. That is exactly what this film is minus the funny as it deals with the real world and situations that these ladies are dealing with. The story is simple enough and nothing all that new but handled well enough to work.
It’s a powerful element to showcase that these women of color leading the film without it ever needing to be about their race. Too many films feel the need to force their way in instead of just letting them exist. This is just about three sisters and anything around them is just their life and no other agenda. It’s not necessary in this sort of story and I applaud them for allowing the cast to just be and do what they do to perfection as all of them are great here.
There is one character that is infuriating in her behavior and credit to the actress for making me hate her from the first moment she stepped on screen. I was yelling at the screen every time she opened her mouth as you should when
anyone acts that way to someone else. That is also the issue with the film as there are a lot of elements of drama and things set up and feels like very little resolution. I know it is meant to be like real life, but by the time the film ends I felt like it went nowhere overall.
There is such a good film here through most of its run time, but the abrupt and ultimately unresolved issues left me feeling like what was the point. It’s far from a bad film but doesn’t give the resolution a lot may hope for. The same can be said for real life which ultimately I am assuming they were going for.
Decide for yourself and check out Allswell in New York in theaters and digital from Freestyle Digital Media.