
William Bermudez and Sam Friedman’s Grassland is a harsh and rather real social justice theater play as it tackles the flaws and issues posed by the criminal justice system of America. Moreover, it also examines the racial discrimination in incarcerating individuals for small marijuana crimes, but rather singularly through the firsthand account of a Latina woman who cultivates and trades in marijuana to take care of her small son.
Parents teaching their children how to fucking survive. Co-written by the directors and David Goldblum and Adam Edery, the producers of the film The Grassland’s action starts with Leo, a cute little Latino boy Ravi Cabot-Conyers, living in a New Jersey household with horrible living conditions, in the company of his mother, Sophia Mia Maestro, who is in the business of growing and selling marijuana. To shield him from the overall “business”, her friend Brandon Quincy Isaiah babysits Leo.
Sofia sees that Brandon is able to connect with young Black male clients and would like him to be her messenger. He denies her the offer and explains how he may get jailed if things get out of hand. Brandon’s scenes are very painful. He is a young male who had a charge of shoplifting which was the fault of his youth and is currently finding it hard to get a type of job. Brandon has a kind of vulnerability and softness because we do want him to make it as he is loyal to Sofia and Leo who make him the family. There is no doubt that he has been allowed to make quite a few friends for it seems to him that Brandon’s stories are passionate commentators against the racial inequities on drug charges policies of the colored communities. Isaiah on the other hand does this quite well, being an ex-con looking for work, only to find jobs that don’t want people with that particular vision.
There is a new threat when Julie Sean Convery and Jeff Kober’s granddaughter Sofai fear that the child’s grandfather is a policeman. The fact that she is terrified of the child’s policeman makes the situation further perturbing. Also, it seems like Leo is finally excited to meet someone his age, which is the complete opposite of what he was expecting. Suffice it to say, that everything is no longer on the side of Sofia.
Jeff Kober impresses the audiences once again with the remarkable role of the most underrated character actor in the film Grassland. From the moment he is introduced, Kober wastes no time in disturbing the placid scene and keeps both the characters and the audience on edge. As portrayed, John seems to be a reclusive person whose engagement with other people is sparse and little. But once the secret is revealed regarding why he is the only one tending to his grandson, he becomes more than a shadow and his relationship with Sofia, Leo, and Brandon alters their fates entirely. Kober is able to portray a character that has so many burdens yet he does not cross the thresholds of cliche thanks to Kober. He sees himself as an old man looking towards the dusk of his career and at the twilight of his narrow-minded outlook. Kober does not engage in pretend anywhere. This is a good collaboration by a good actor.
Maestro and Cabot Conyers have their moments of beauty in their shared scenes given that both actresses have first-hand understanding of the challenges that come with their roles as single mothers and how such hardships can serve to bond them closer. She says to him, “You can do anything Still, my mother’s everything to me.” Sure, what Sofia does is unlawful, but she intends to sell her last cargo and quit. As far as her son is concerned, women trying to survive during the Great Recession of 08 only want the best for them. Maestro does very well in portraying a gentle woman who has realistic delusions about the consequences of what she does.
Cabot-Conyers is also commendable in casting Leo, who does act, as a smooth candid boy with intense curiosity. This young man is bound to have great success.
The last act veers into melodramatic territory, but the directors make it work through their effort to develop characters that are thought-provoking. Achieving a compelling performance that makes the audience pity the collection of flawed individuals whose lives spiral out of control establishing a script that is designed to reflect reality. In the end, it is powerful, balancing out the consequences of the failure of the system and the failure of all.
For Grassland William Bermudez and Sam Friedman have drawn from personal experience. Friedman recalls that during high school, his mother began growing marijuana right in her bedroom. As a result of this Friedman says that for him “Suburban normalcy” vanished; his friends were not allowed to come to his house and as a teenager, he started to resent his mother for what she was doing. Bermudez is a child of an immigrant. He has an immigrant father who settled in the US as a child and had to leave behind everything he knew to survive in a new country.
Friedman recounts: ‘Our film is a product of those histories, and it is interested in the family structures, racial, cultural, economic and gendered, that produce the ideologies of white supremacy, patriarchy, and wealth as taken-for-granted, as a routine in America. Through Leo, his mother in the story lets the audience witness the injustice she has to bear.’
For one, the empathy and the understanding through Lowe’s head starts to click as well. The American justice system has a peculiar approach towards low-level marijuana charges, for instance, which is sometimes used in the building of courts. Until the defendant is black or Latino, say, it is sometimes applied. And even though it has in many respects evolved (and to an extent it has), thousands, if not millions of people, who are mostly of color, still serve for such offenses as drug usage. Such race-constructed double standard undermine the social order and serve as a basis of social disintegration.
Also, according to the Film’s publicists, as film directors were hiring certain crew members, they were willing to work with individuals with a certain social background from the director’s perspective. Such chances were offered in terms of “the workforce that included ex-convict and the consulting producers who have suffered in the hands of law”.
Their devotion and relentless pursuit of realism is precisely what makes their film so disturbing not only but also powerful.
Grass has made it clear how important it is to try and obtain justice for these minorities who are victims of this country’s unjust and polarized drug policies. It was so well done, artistic in every respect, William Bermudez and Sam Friedman point out how many terrific people and families are broken by the might of cruel injustice. It is a great film and an important one.
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