Two Worlds Next Door: My Film Review of “Brotherhood: A Cinematic Musical”
An Original Movie Musical for America Today
Max Hechtman arriving on the red carpet for the NYC premiere of Brotherhood: A Cinematic Musical at AMC Lincoln Square 13 in New York City. (Photo courtesy of Sarah Merians Photography)
Last night, I was in the room for the New York City premiere of Brotherhood: A Cinematic Musical, and I walked out sure of one thing: this is a five-star film.
It’s an independent movie musical made for the times we’re living in. At its core, it asks a question that feels more urgent every year: what does it actually mean to love and understand your neighbor?
As an independent filmmaker, I usually watch movies with one eye on the screen and one eye on the seams. With Brotherhood, I stopped looking for the seams pretty quickly.
A story about the people next door
Brotherhood follows two next-door neighbors. Jon is a lifelong American citizen. Fabián is a Mexican immigrant who has waited more than a decade for an answer on his asylum application. As both men and their families move through a stretch of real uncertainty, the film challenges them, and us, to see each other beyond labels.
What struck me most is how original it is. This is not an adaptation of a Broadway stage hit or a jukebox of songs you already know. Ross Boothe, in his feature-length debut, wrote, composed, and directed the whole thing, so the story and the score grow from the same root.
One of the standout musical numbers is the film’s signature song, and the one from which this review takes its name, “Two Worlds Next Door.” It was released as a pop duet back in February of this year before a single frame was shot, and it carried most of the advertising, so many of us walked in expecting a duet. In the film itself, though, as confirmed when I went to the NYC stop of the promotional “Love Your Neighbor” tour last month, the song’s main version is a full quartet, with Fabián‘s teenage daughter Sofia and Jon’s teenage son Landon joining in. It's a fitting reminder that this story was never only about two men.
There are scenes here that will hit really close to home for a lot of people, especially one particular moment after the song “Ay, Ay, Ay” where reality smacks right in and ends up setting everyone’s hearts racing and making us shiver in our seats. I won’t spoil those moments, but you’ll know them when you see them.
The performances
From L to R: Casey Elliott (Jon), Hayley Bobay (Jeanette Carns), producer Darren Smith, Mauricio Martínez (Fabián), Paulina Reyes (Sofia), Oakley Thacker (Landon) and Cody Bobay (Scott) on the red carpet. (Photo courtesy of Sarah Merians Photography)
Mauricio Martínez and Casey Elliott are the beating hearts of this movie as Fabián and Jon. The friendship between these two men is the spine of the film, and they make you believe every step of it. Charlotte Hemmings and Gabriela Bañuelos play their on-screen wives with so much emotion that you can’t look away. You feel everything their characters go through.
Paulina Reyes and Oakley Thacker are standouts as Sofia and Landon. I truly believe these will be their career breakthroughs, and I’ll be watching for whatever they do next. Cody Bobay and Alex Melecio round out the ensemble as Scott, another neighbor on Jon’s street, and Edgardo, one of the workers at Fabián’s restaurant. Together they help make the world around these two families feel full and real.
The craft, from a filmmaker's seat
Writer/Director/Composer Ross Boothe introducing the film. (Photo courtesy of Sarah Merians Photography)
Huge shoutout to cinematographer Oscar Ignacio Jiménez and the rest of the creative team for their outstanding work. The film was shot entirely on location in Utah. Jiménez, production designer Frida Oliva, costume designer Edurne Fernandez, and choreographer Alan Salazar are all Mexican American and brought their own experiences to this story. You can feel that authenticity on screen.
As someone who knows how hard it is to get any independent feature made, I can’t overstate this: an original movie musical, with new songs and choreography, made outside the studio system, is a massive undertaking. Brotherhood pulls it off with real heart.
Why we need films like this
Thank you, Ross Boothe, for making this movie. We need you, and independent artists like you, to give us work that doesn’t only inform but inspires. Work that gets us to think about ourselves and our world, one frame at a time.
Brotherhood: A Cinematic Musical opens in select theaters nationwide on October 9. Tickets are on sale now at brotherhoodmovie.com/tickets, and the soundtrack is streaming now.
