RomanceDrama

R♥️J

Told entirely through social media and smartphone screens, this bold adaptation of Romeo and Juliet reinvents the world’s most enduring love story with style and lyricism, with black and brown youth at the heart of it all.

Release Date : 2021-01-30

Language :English

Adult : false

Status : Released

Production Company : Interface Films

Production Country : United States of America

Alternative Titles :

Cast

Character Name : Romeo

Original Name : Camaron Engels

Gender : Male

Character Name : Juliet

Original Name : Francesca Noel

Gender : Female

Character Name : Benvolio

Original Name : RJ Cyler

Gender : Male

Character Name : Mercutio

Original Name : Siddiq Saunderson

Gender : Male

Character Name : Tybalt

Original Name : Diego Tinoco

Gender : Male

Character Name : Fernando Capulet

Original Name : David Zayas

Gender : Male

Character Name : Paris

Original Name : Dakota Shapiro

Gender : Male

Character Name : Alcide Montague

Original Name : Moe Irvin

Gender : Male

Character Name : Nancy

Original Name : María Gabriela de Faría

Gender : Female

Character Name : Captain Prince

Original Name : Russell Hornsby

Gender : Male

Character Name : Abram

Original Name : DeShawn Cavanaugh

Gender : Male

Character Name : Lady Capulet

Original Name : Denise Dorado

Gender : Male

Character Name : Taz

Original Name : Jean Elie

Gender : Male

Character Name : Sampson

Original Name : Emilio Garcia-Sanchez

Gender : Male

Character Name : Young Romeo

Original Name : Jaden Joyner

Gender : Male

Character Name : Lawrence

Original Name : Jacob Ming-Trent

Gender : Male

Character Name : Young Alcide

Original Name : Eric M. Myrick

Gender : Male

Character Name : Young Fernando

Original Name : Matias Ponce

Gender : Male

Character Name : Gregory

Original Name : Ricky Russert

Gender : Male

Reviews

Louisa Moore - Screen Zealots

@screenzealots

2021-06-23

The classic Romeo and Juliet tale is given a modern spin in “R#J,” an inventive but irritating film from director Carey Williams. The movie is too drawn-out (especially the painfully prolonged ending), and the gimmick of telling the story entirely through social media and smartphone screens doesn’t take long to become annoying. You know the plot of the world’s most famous love story, and the film faithfully follows the original work of literature. A war is brewing between the Montagues and the Capulets, and the younger residents of Verona are using their phones to document it all. This leads to a head-spinning series of Instagram posts, text messages that come fast and furious, FaceTime calls, chats, selfies, GIFs, and Spotify playlists that score the action. The characters speak in a manner that blends the formal with the casual, reciting their lines in iambic pentameter that is a mix of Shakespearean language and modern slang. Williams has assembled an original, thorough vision with a technological spin for his version of the story, and it’s fun to see the methods in which he updates this highly creative retelling. He finds super inventive ways to tie the story into a modern setting, but the flashes of brilliance are offset by plenty of moments of annoyance. This would have worked far better as a short film. The film is experimental in nature, and some of the ideas are extremely disturbing (like live streaming suicides on YouTube). It’s cringey in parts, but “R#J” is a cool multicultural update on Shakespeare’s original work, and I can appreciate what the filmmaker is trying to do here. By: Louisa Moore