Review of Rivers Wash Over Me

70 years ago, Shirley Temple played "Heidi" a girl who had to move in with cruel relatives when her beloved Grandfather passes away. So this idea of adapting to a new environment is hardly new. What is interesting (and hard to follow) about this movie is there are so many underdeveloped characters, subplots and themes one hardly knows where this movie is going. Sequan, a Black teenager, has to move to rural Alabama from New York when his mother passes, to live with his Aunt. I think that's who she is. One has no idea why his Aunt is so angry, why his other Uncle beat up his (deceased?) father, why the principal of the high school seems to be portrayed as both a principal and a minister. Another teenager in the group gets killed, related to the drug subculture at the high school, but you never see how or why. He's just dead in the woods later after being missing. It just goes on and on. One unexplained thing after another. Personally, I think this is deliberate to try to inject "mystery" but it just makes a mess. SPOILER SPOILER The box cover shows two teen males kissing, but this is such a short part of the movie, it seems like an afterthought. Supposedly Sequan tries to hide his homosexuality, but everyone in the film has it figured out in the first five or 10 minutes, he is so nerdy and odd. However, the actors do an excellent job, especially Derrick Middleton as Sequan, who conveys a quiet strength while being tormented at home and school. SPOILER about the conclusion: In the end Sequan is shot and instead of rushing him to the hospital, his friends take him to a field where he appears dead, then coughs and his Uncle the Sheriff is now on the scene who picks him up and carries him (towards the squad car?).....the end.