From Omeleto.
Two teenagers team up.
Grant is a high school basketball captain and a prominent figure in his school’s social hierarchy. But when he breaks a window at school, he’s faced with the prospect of suspension and missing an important upcoming game — or paying for the window’s repair.
For a quick and easy way of coming up with the sizable sum, he decides to enter a dance contest at the school and enlists the help of Emily, a girl at his school with Down syndrome who is also looking for a partner for it. They team up, with Emily taking him under her wing, though Grant endures teasing and dismissive comments from his friends. Emily teaches Grant some dance moves and choreography, but she also teaches him more about human capability.
Directed and written by Jacob Melamed, this straightforward and charming short dramedy is an unconventional buddy story that explores the notions of ability, disability and capability while charting the development of a touching friendship. When we meet Grant and Emily, Grant is at the center of the action on the basketball court, while Emily dances by herself on the sidelines, a visual representation of where they are situated in the school’s social ecosystem and perhaps in society at large. But gradually, Grant and Emily take up equal weight in the visuals and storytelling, as Grant comes to see, experience and appreciate Emily’s capabilities.
The storytelling touches upon each of its plot points lightly, from Grant’s window-breaking to the discovery of the dance contest to the teaming up between two unlikely people. But it takes care in setting up the relationship and characters, capturing how Emily is mostly ignored by her schoolmates to the way Grant’s friends refer to Grant’s interactions with Emily as "community service."
Grant himself has a certain brashness associated with the jock stereotype. But thanks to actor Carlos Sanson, Jr.’s engaging performance, Grant also has an innate decency, and even from the beginning, he doesn’t treat Emily with condescension — it’s just that she doesn’t really register with him until he needs her help with the contest. But as they work together, they develop a touching rapport, bringing Emily into focus with actor Emily Scerri-Rikkert’s charmingly natural performance. She shows a certain confidence and joy in her dancing, and at a pivotal moment, she also shows Grant what it means to be brave, daring and take up space, despite what people may say.
Engaging, fun and heartwarming, what’s touching about WE HAVE ME is its straightforward sincerity and guilelessness. At its heart, it’s a simple story about friendship, generosity and what we can teach and learn from one another. But even with its gently told narrative, it has strong convictions, perhaps founded in the writer-director’s own experiences in having a so-called hidden disability: everyone has worth and something to offer, everyone deserves respect, and we can all inspire one another to be our best, regardless of physical and mental capabilities.
WE HAVE ME. Courtesy of Jacob Melamed at https://melamedphotos.com.
