Alone, Now

5 responses to “Alone, Now”

1. Man this one got me. I lost my mom a few years ago and I usually stay away from movies about losing your mother because I already know where my mind is going to go. But this didn’t feel like somebody trying to make me cry. It just felt familiar.

   It was the little stuff for me. The quiet. Being in the house and realizing the person who made that place feel like home isn’t there anymore. People always talk about missing somebody, but they don’t really talk about how weird everything feels after. Like the world is still moving and you’re doing regular shit, but something about life just feels off now.

   I think what hit me the most though is this really felt like a movie about how much a man loved his mama. Not just about losing her. You could feel how important she was to him without the movie having to explain everything to you. When my mother died I remember people asking me if I was okay and I didn’t even know how to answer that because I wasn’t just sad. I felt different. I still do sometimes.

   I wasn’t expecting to think about my own mom this much today. I miss you Ma. I hope wherever you are, you know your boy is still trying down here.

   Thank you for making this.

   Also- very beautifully shot! Them bathtub shots was fire!

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2. As I sit here at 9:30 am, tears already welling up, I am overwhelmed by the flood of memories this film has stirred within me. The first word that comes to mind is empathetic. Oh, how I miss my mother. There are countless things I could say about her, my Queen, but for brevity’s sake, I’ll simply say she was fierce. That 5’1” woman had an incredible ability to dress herself with style and grace, often donning 6-inch heels every day. My mother would dress up for no particular reason, and when she returned from work, we would patiently wait for her stories to finish before speaking. I believe “The Young and The Restless” was her favorite show, though she also loved “Wheel of Fortune.”

   One of my most cherished memories is from my high school prom in 1998. She looked more stunning than my date, even though she wasn’t attending. 😆 As the youngest of her children, she was tough on me, but she raised us to the best of her ability, always saying, “I made it possible.” I had the privilege of caring for my parents until their final days. It’s been 11 years, yet it still feels like yesterday. I would give anything to have my Queen back, but I trust that God doesn’t make mistakes. My mother was deeply loved by the entire neighborhood and left a lasting impression on everyone she met. I love you, Helen Hibbs, to infinity and beyond, and until we meet again, rest in peace, Mama.

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3. My mom is still here and I swear the first thing I wanted to do when this went off was call her. I actually had to sit there for a second because I wasn’t expecting this movie to hit me like that.
   I think sometimes when your parents are still here you don’t really think about them not being here. Or at least I don’t. My mom calls me and sometimes I’m busy and I’ll say I’ll call her back. She’ll ask me to come by and I might say maybe next weekend. Just normal life stuff. But watching this made me think about how one day I would probably give anything just to see her name pop up on my phone again. The actor was incredible too. There were moments where he wasn’t even saying anything and I knew exactly what he was feeling. That’s hard to do. The whole movie felt very real and very intimate, like I was watching something I probably wasn’t supposed to be seeing. I don’t have the experience of losing my mother and hopefully I don’t for a very long time. So I can’t pretend to understand that kind of pain. But I definitely understand loving her. And I think that’s what I took from this more than anything. This movie made me think about what I still have instead of what I’ve lost. Calling my mama today. And this time I’m not rushing her off the phone.

   Great film. Seriously.

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4. I give this film 3.5 out of 5. What impressed me most about Alone, Now is the restraint. This could have easily been one of those films that tells you when you’re supposed to be sad. Big speeches, dramatic music, somebody breaking down every five minutes. Blake Martin doesn’t do that. He trusts the silence and, more importantly, he trusts his actor.

   Taijun Waters is really damn good here. There are stretches where the whole film is basically sitting on his face and body language, and he carries it. As a Black man, I also appreciated seeing another Black man allowed to be this vulnerable without the film trying to explain or apologize for it. He’s not performing masculinity for us. He’s just a man trying to exist in a house that suddenly doesn’t feel the same anymore.

   The cinematography deserves some love too. There are some beautiful shots in this, but they never felt like they were there just to show off. The camera actually feels connected to what Charlie is going through. Same with the pacing. It’s slow, but I mean that as a compliment. The film gives moments time to sit there and get uncomfortable.

   And I have to mention the sound. There were moments where what I wasn’t hearing was just as important as what I was. That’s probably what surprised me the most about the filmmaking overall. Nobody seems afraid of quiet.

   Is it a huge movie? No. It doesn’t need to be. It’s a small story told with a lot of confidence, and I think that’s why it works. By the end I didn’t feel like I had watched a movie trying to make some grand statement about grief. I felt like I watched somebody realize just how much of his life was wrapped up in being loved by one person.

   That’s a much harder thing to make a film about, and Alone, Now does it beautifully. Good job to all

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5. this was beautiful. sorry for your loss to whom created this

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