


The kids are mostly left to their own devices on a rundown bit of seashore where Billie and Nico’s mom Eve (Karyn Parsons, the filmmaker's wife and Lana and Nico's real mom) has rented a summer cabin to drink the days away with the abusive boyfriend she’s desperate to hang onto. It’s that voice (singing the titular Van Morrison song) that draws the attention of Malik (newcomer Jabari Watkins), another kid from a tough background (mom’s an addict and dad’s in jail), who hotwires a car to take Billie on a jaunt to forget her troubles. The eighteen year-old plays fifteen here, mature but still a kid who is gifted with a distinctive singing voice ostensibly inherited from her imagined fairy godmother Billie Holiday. Boston area writer/director Alexandre Rockwell ("In the Soup") still makes films like his early days, low budget, hand-held 16mm b&w (with some fantasy scenes in hazy color) slices of life featuring his own children and if this one doesn’t make a star of his eldest, Lana, the right people aren’t paying attention.
