FILM REVIEW: 'If I Go Will They Miss Me' Is a Masterpiece — One of the Best Films of 2026
The BeltLine News — Film Review
Every so often a film comes along that doesn't just tell a story — it changes the temperature in the room. If I Go Will They Miss Me is that film. Believe the praise: this is one of the finest movies of 2026, full stop.
Written, directed, and edited by Walter Thompson-Hernández — expanding his 2022 short film of the same name — the movie premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, won Best Feature Film at the Martha's Vineyard African American Film Festival, and sits at 96% on Rotten Tomatoes. After watching it, the only surprise is that the number isn't higher.
A Father, a Son, and a Myth
Set in Watts, Los Angeles, beneath the endless roar of the LAX flight path, the film follows 12-year-old Lil Ant (Bodhi Dell), a quiet, artistic boy whose father, Big Ant (J. Alphonse Nicholson), has just come home from prison — again. Lil Ant doesn't see his fractured family the way the world does. Through a child's imagination, he recasts them as Greek mythology: his father is Poseidon, a god. His mother Lozita (Danielle Brooks) is Medusa. And he is Pegasus, waiting to fly.
It's a stunning creative choice, and Thompson-Hernández executes it flawlessly. The planes overhead become omens. The neighborhood becomes legend. And a boy's question — if I go, will they miss me? — becomes one of the most heartbreaking refrains in recent cinema.
Career-Best Performances
J. Alphonse Nicholson gives the performance of his career. His Big Ant is no villain and no saint — he's a man arrested in his own development, idolized by a son he's terrified of failing, carrying wounds he has no language for. Nicholson plays him with a vulnerability that will leave you wrecked.
Danielle Brooks is sensational as Lozita, the mother who held the entire household together through every absence. She is the film's heartbeat — strength and tenderness in the same breath. And young Bodhi Dell is a revelation, carrying the emotional weight of the film with eyes that say everything dialogue can't.
Poetry in Motion
Critics have compared the film's lyrical, magical-realist touch to Moonlight and Beasts of the Southern Wild, and for once the comparisons are earned. Thompson-Hernández — with cinematographer Michael Fernandez — paints Watts not as a backdrop for struggle, but as a living, breathing mythology. This is Black fatherhood, Black boyhood, and Black love rendered with rare honesty and breathtaking beauty.
At 92 minutes, the film never wastes a frame. It drifts like memory, lands like truth, and lingers long after the credits — the way only great cinema does.
The Verdict
If I Go Will They Miss Me is a triumph: a debut feature with the confidence of a masterwork, powered by three unforgettable performances and a filmmaker with a voice entirely his own. Go see it. Bring somebody you love. Then sit with it — because a film this honest about fathers, sons, and the distance between them doesn't come around often.
THE BELTLINE NEWS SCORE: 9.5 / 10 ⭐
If I Go Will They Miss Me — in theaters now. Directed by Walter Thompson-Hernández. Starring J. Alphonse Nicholson, Danielle Brooks, and Bodhi Dell.
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