Newlyweeds isn’t much of a comedy, though there are a couple of good laughs, and it isn’t much of a romance. It takes place along the Bushwick/Bedford-Stuyvesant border in Brooklyn, where two lovers—Nina (Trae Harris) and Lyle (Amari Cheatom)—work to overcome socio-economic hardships that might be their ruin. Newlyweeds is a good depiction of the unfortunate realities of the general urban struggle, from police harassment to the scam-businesses that Lyle would just as soon work for to make a dollar. He’s a hard-working man trying to earn a living to support his girlfriend and fulfill his dream of travel. This dream he shares with Nina, who espouses a metaphysical conception of travel.

It doesn’t matter that they select the Galapagos as their first destination because Lyle “heard about it once in a rap song,” so much as that they experience something more than the grit and grime of the NYC hustle. Yet the Galapagos dream hangs on a nail of idealism in the background against overwhelming practical difficulties and the dramas of daily life—which might strain the relationship to the point of no return. The little money that Lyle earns barely affords the marijuana that they burn on a daily basis, and they seem to drift farther and farther away from being able to afford even airplane tickets. It isn’t that they abuse marijuana but simply that their dream finds its limit in the smoke.

The audience hopes that they make it to the Galapagos but are left wondering until the final shot. While the ending is unsettling, the merit of this film is its depiction of the generally unsettling urban reality. The movie has to end ambiguously. Nina ends up on probation and Lyle committing an unethical act that rings as universally valid. This ambiguity is inevitably carried through to their relationship. Are they actually newlyweds, or are they planning to get married? Details are lost in the haze. But who cares? In a way, that’s the point.

In the mess of poverty, seducers, seedy businesses, over-protective parents, and an unjust legal system, their greatest empowerment is to remain optimistic to support their dream. As the psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan would put it, optimism is the redoubled sustenance of their fantasy: it supports their raison d’etre. Amarie Cheatom achieves a captivating and touching portrayal of this drive.

The unsettling ending reflects the unsettling realities that Newlyweeds depicts. But viewers can’t help but sense that Lyle’s drive is already warmed by the truth of that Galapagos sunshine.