This film is relatable 👏🏾 Black girl 👏🏾content👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾. I did not know I needed this art so badly. So Rachel, thank you.

Now, while I did not have the opportunity to prepare for a cultural/religious rite of passage such as a Bat Mitzvah in my youth, I immediately knew what Birdie (portrayed beautifully by Indigo Hubbard-Salk) was doing when she dragged that chair up to the kitchen sink, and stacked the phone books upon it!

Sis, just the nostalgia of this scene alone—I could feel the Royal Crown hair grease sliding down my forehead and nape, and the heat on my edges as soon as I saw that hot comb. The pain of having to bend my head and neck back into the kitchen sink for a wash!! 😣😱😣

Rachel, you did that! Whew! That sequence was edited to perfection. And you had the nerve to add holy music to it too! (SCREAMING WITH JOY IN MY WHOLE HEART!)

The “broken” in the title refers to Birdie’s family life, and follows her Bat Mitzvah preparations while navigating the separation of her folks and a visitation with her father (played by Chad L. Coleman). The weird energy during the drop-off by one parent and the pick-up by the other was so relatable. I’d experienced this so many times, and it’s often difficult to articulate. One critique I’d give about the rotating camera movement during the drop-off/pick-up scene is that I think the drama of Birdie waiting could have been more striking if the camera didn’t continue to rotate. Rather, the use of one 360-rotation, then maybe a trucking movement as she paces, or a zoom-in on her face as she waits to build the suspense around her father showing up (or not).

When her father picks her up, they decide to dine in at a Chinese food restaurant. Again, so “on brand” for me—this is exactly the sequence I recall with my dad (but with iHop as an alternative to Chinese). After the meal filled with awkward conversation about the veiled racism Birdie had experienced at her synagogue, she joins her father in the restaurant’s parking lot to meet an older gentlemen at his car.

Now look…I’m not gonna say I’m clairvoyant, but I just KNEW that man was gonna pop that trunk.

And I just KNEW that Birdie’s father was about to get her something “for Christmas” in the back of that man’s vehicle.

AND I KNEEEEWWWWW…it was counterfeit designer shit!!

I don’t know what it is about Black men of a certain age, but their antics and carrying-ons are eerily similar. Even the father singing to Donna Summer, and then Birdie listening to it later while she studied felt so genuine and palatable to my own familial experiences. And that’s why this type of representation and inclusivity in narratives and character development are important!

I felt seen.

I can’t wait to share this art with the crew.