R♥️J

2021 1h 31m EN

👍

6.6

SOLID

★6.6TMDB · 35

RomanceDrama

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

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.

“Some stories are better left unspoiled.”

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Cast

Camaron Engels
Romeo
Francesca Noel
Juliet
RJ Cyler
Benvolio
Siddiq Saunderson
Mercutio
Diego Tinoco
Tybalt
David Zayas
Fernando Capulet
Dakota Shapiro
Paris
Moe Irvin
Alcide Montague

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Carey Williams
Writers: Carey Williams, Rickie Castaneda, Alexey Sobolev
Languages: English
Countries: United States of America

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 6

ERA

Did you know

Released 5 years ago.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 6

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Carey Williams, shot by Diego Madrigal. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 6

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Lam Nguyen shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 6

CAST

Did you know

Camaron Engels and Francesca Noel and RJ Cyler carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 6

WILD

Did you know

IMDB entry: tt12330184 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 6

WILD

Did you know

Only 35 TMDB ratings — you're getting ahead of the curve on this one.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Carey Williams directs. Diego Madrigal behind the camera. Lam Nguyen cuts. Runs lean at under 100 minutes. Produced in United States of America. Dialogue in English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Released 5 years ago.
2Directed by Carey Williams, shot by Diego Madrigal. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
3Editor Lam Nguyen shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
4Camaron Engels and Francesca Noel and RJ Cyler carry the top of the cast.
5IMDB entry: tt12330184 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
6Only 35 TMDB ratings — you're getting ahead of the curve on this one.

The technical file

Cinematography: Diego Madrigal
Editing: Lam Nguyen
Production design: Evelyn Ellias
Costume design: Desi Aguilar
Makeup / hair: Carla Rosso
Sound: Ugo Derouard
Runtime: 91 min · 1h 31m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Original language: EN
IMDB: R♥️J (2021)

Also by

Carey Williams

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Community reviews

What people are saying

Louisa Moore - Screen Zealots2021-03-09
★ 4/10
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

Production companies