If I Go Will They Miss Me Review: Great Acting Carries A Movie That Does Too Much

Though its poetic approach yields some powerful emotion, If I Go Will They Miss Me is too aware of its own importance, and it nearly sinks the film. Published Sep 11, 2026, 2:53 PM EDT Alex is the Senior Editor of Reviews & Prestige Content, overseeing ScreenRant's film reviews as one of its Rotten Tomatoes-approved critics. After graduating from Brown University with a B.A. in English, he spent a locked-down year in Scotland completing a Master's in Film Studies from the University of Edinburgh, which he hears is a nice, lively city. He now lives in and works from Milan, Italy, conveniently a short train ride from the Venice Film Festival, which he first covered for SR in 2024. If I Go Will They Miss Me, the new movie from writer-director Walter Thompson-Hernández, premiered at this year's Sundance. Had I not already known that going in, I would have guessed as much. This poetic, emotional film is very invested in the people on-screen being seen, and more specifically being seen the way this camera captures them – Thompson-Hernández grew up in this Los Angeles neighborhood, and has said he was motivated to portray his community honestly, in contrast to the often exploitative ways they're typically portrayed. There's real value in that mission, and it's the source of much of this film's texture and nuance. It is also, however, very easy to feel when a movie is made with the belief that what it's doing is important. It gets baked into the style, somehow: legible in the tendency to hold on or return to specific images; the way the camera chases beauty in mundane or natural spaces; or the way music reaches for and tugs at the heart. It's a feeling I'm typically allergic to in all but the best of circumstances. If I come away from a movie like that completely all-in, I know I'm in the hands of a truly gifted filmmaker. My experience with If I Go Will They Miss Me is somewhat mixed. What Thompson-Hernández is going for comes through often, whether in flashes or sustained scenes, but it's just as often buried under too much of the aesthetic I've described. I was pulled in by the film at times, pushed away by it at others. But what kept me engaged, and what ensured my final impression was a positive one, were the actors, and the performances that Thompson-Hernández's approach yielded. If I Go Will They Miss Me's reach may exceed its grasp, but it doesn't come away empty-handed. If I Go Will They Miss Me's Great Performances Could've Used A Lighter Touch At its core, this movie is a father-son story, though its interest extends wider than that. Lil Ant (Bodhi Dell) is a 12-year-old boy whose dad, Big Ant (J. Alphonse Nicholson), just came home from his latest stint in prison. A prologue of sorts, narrated by the young boy, shows us that Big Ant has been in-and-out of trouble since the fateful day he recklessly but accidentally struck a janitor with a brick after having snuck up on a roof with his friends. The police were waiting for him when he got home. Lil Ant is artistic and sensitive. Before that day he was arrested, Big Ant used to be that way, too, and we sense that is one reason their relationship has become strained lately. Nicholson's character is going through an identity crisis. He's had a long, loving relationship with Lozita (Danielle Brooks) since childhood, and they have three children together, but he hardly spends time at home. He has a mistress on the other side of their projects. He postures toughness in a way that even his best friend JJ (Myles Bullock) struggles to understand. Whether he realizes or not, he's at a tipping point, at risk of losing everything he has. If I Go Will They Miss Me is made with a great deal of empathy for all its characters... How aware Lil Ant is of all this is an open question. He's a little more childish than his classmates, and as he studies Greek mythology in school, he's taken to filtering his world through that prism. He especially likes to envision his dad as the god Poseidon, magnificently hurling his trident out over the sea. Unsurprisingly, Big Ant is uncomfortable with how his son sees him, and with how much of himself he sees in his son. If he's not careful, pushing that discomfort away could shatter that image in a way that does Lil Ant some lasting damage. If I Go Will They Miss Me is made with a great deal of empathy for all its characters, which makes for some well-layered emotional storytelling. Thompson-Hernández wants us to approach Big Ant with understanding, even when he's making a harmful decision, and we do. But he also doesn't shy away from capturing the pain he causes his loved ones. This approach is what gives Nicholson and Brooks the room to do some really touching, involving work. The film couples these wells of feeling with a lot of poetic imagery, not limited to Lil Ant's mythology-inspired fantasies. The boy has a fascination with flight, stemming in part from the airplanes that frequently fly over their neighborhood, and this concept spins out in various ways. Many of these touches are most effective the first or second times they're used, but the more often they appear, the more of their power is siphoned away. Thompson-Hernández is invested in building rich emotional lives for these characters, and that project may have been better served by a more grounded approach to the storytelling, allowing the fantastical touches to sing by contrast. Case in point: The film's most effective stylistic choice is its careful deployment of shadow, which practically functions as pathetic fallacy. Early on, If I Go Will They Miss Me captures the easy warmth between Big Ant and his other children and the chilly distance between him and Lil Ant with composition alone; later, Big Ant's experience of extremes is punctuated by a shift from light to shadow. These moments did more to shape my experience of this film than any of the more significant reaches for poetics. If I Go Will They Miss Me releases in limited theaters September 11 before expanding nationwide on September 18. Release Date September 11, 2026 Runtime 95 minutes Director Walter Thompson-Hernández Writers Walter Thompson-Hernández Producers Ben Stillman, Josh Peters, Saba Zerehi, Walter Thompson-Hernández Cast J. Alphonse Nicholson Big Ant If I Go Will They Miss Me is a 2026 coming-of-age drama set in Watts, Los Angeles, where 12-year-old Lil Ant struggles to reconnect with his distant father after his incarceration. As surreal visions of boys begin appearing around his neighborhood, Lil Ant discovers a mysterious connection between those visions, his father, and their shared family legacy.