Director Rashaad Ernesto Green’s (Gun Hill Road) sophomore feature takes place during 17-year-old Ayanna’s last summer before she goes to college. For many, including myself, this summer assumes a special place in memory, the last time when it feels like everything is possible. For New Yorker Ayanna, who plans to become a writer, the summer’s defining feature is her love affair with an aspiring and slightly older musician/music producer named Isaiah, a relationship which gently upends her life and forces her to reconsider whether or not she truly wants to leave home.

The film creates a poignant picture of a languid Harlem summer. No one seems to be in a profound hurry to be anywhere, jokes are liberally tossed back and forth among friends and family, and when the characters relax at Riverside State Park, we can almost smell the lighter fluid in the air. It is not that we have any illusions that these characters are living untroubled lives, but it is their warmth that is most palpable. In many of the strongest scenes, there is little at stake, and we are simply watching a few friends messing with each other. Premature is at its best when it yields to this easy naturalism.

Not every scene lands though. Occasionally, some of the dialogue, while attempting to sound natural, comes off as stagey, such as when a group of musicians debate the purpose of art. Though to be fair, it’s not as though artists never have those conversations. I also was not so fond of the filmmaker’s decision to have a recurring voice-over from Ayanna in which she reads poetry from her journal, which struck me as somewhat cloying.

Yet these shortcomings are minor. Conversely, there are moments that in summary could sound horribly melodramatic that have unexpected beauty, such as one in which a mother discovers her daughter’s plans for the future are in jeopardy.

The film is also anchored by many strong performances, the best of which might be Zora Howard’s. Howard also co-wrote the film, and in her capable hands Ayanna is watchful, intelligent, understandably confused, and convincingly a late adolescent. The complex stew of emotions brought on by her relationship with Isaiah is wonderfully clear. Joshua Boone, as Isaiah, is no slouch either, and most of the interactions between the lovers are nicely organic. Many of the characters with much less screen time are memorable as well, to such an extent that I sometimes wished we knew just a little more about them.  

At a post-screening Q and A, Howard and director Green spoke about their intentions with the movie, which originated as a short 12 years earlier. They said that they wanted to create a film about black people that does not emphasize black trauma, and on those terms, and on many others, this refreshing film succeeds beautifully. If there are flaws, who cares? Premature is the kind of touching film where they don’t matter so much.