Dayveon movie review & film summary (2017)

Devin Blackmon stars as the title character, a restless young man in rural Arkansas whose brother was recently killed. The loss has left a void in him that he is uncertain of how to address, sitting in his mobile home as a portrait of his brother hangs over him. Dayveon finds himself pulled between two influences. The local Bloods jump him into their gang early on in the movie, with leader Mook (Lachion Buckingham) taking him under his wing, showing him and his friend Brayden (Kordell Johnson) the various ropes. At the same time, his sister’s boyfriend Brian (Dontrell Bright) tries to reach out to Dayveon, by even offering to be like a brother, although it might be too late. 

According to the press notes, Abbasi and Steven Reneaud wrote the script after meeting a lot of people just like Dayveon, Mook, Brayden and Brian. These experiences feel honored by the film’s incredible performances from non-actors, where no one is pushed beyond their natural dramatic nuance, and yet a story develops. A scene in which Brian tries to reach out to a very restless Dayveon is one particular standout moment where dialogue, narrative intention and emotion play out as if the characters knew what needed to be said, but no script was needed to clean it up. 

There’s a fascinating way in which the movie was shot that gives it another distinct quality. Using a boxy aspect ratio of 4:3, “Dayveon” has a classic, non-fussy presentation, and achieves a delicate balance of documenting the people and places but never adding its own visual flair. The colors in this movie are tremendous in ways that are incredibly subtle, like how Dayveon’s red clothes pop against the peaceful green surroundings of Arkansas as he walks towards what becomes his first gang initiation. In the best way that micro-budget cinema can, “Dayveon” achieves almost a 3-D effect with how it creates such texture in its lived-in rural settings, making the atmosphere, and the people, all the more tangible. 

ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7s7vGnqmempWnwW%2BvzqZmq52mnrK4v46dmLKulaS7bn6Pam4%3D