When I Get Home (2019)

When I Get Home Poster

In the three years since her seminal album "A Seat at the Table", Solange has broadened her artistic reach, expanding her work to museum installations, unconventional live performances, and striking videos. With her fourth album, "When I Get Home", the singer continues to push her vision forward with an exploration of roots and their lifelong influence. In Solange's case, that's the culturally rich Houston of her childhood. Some will know these references - candy paint, the late legend DJ Screw - via the city's mid-aughts hip-hop explosion, but through Solange's lens, these same touchstones are elevated to high art.

Introduction
"When I Get Home" is a critically well-known speculative movie from 2019, conceptualized and directed by Solange Knowles, understood for her musical prowess. The 41-minute visual album explores black identity, ladies empowerment, spirituality, and the idea of home. The movie supplements Solange's album of the exact same name.

Plot/themes
The film is not about telling a direct story. Rather, it showcases a series of performances and visuals to elicit an emotional response from the audience. It centers on a lead character returning house-- both in a physical and metaphysical sense-- to stuffed landscapes of Houston, Texas, through an Afrofuturist lens.

Solange brilliantly checks out the themes of belonging, memory, and identity. Through her artistry, she prompts the audience to assess their personal experiences intertwined with larger social issues. This journey to "home" is set against a backdrop of vibrant afro-futuristic aesthetic appeals, surreal dreamscapes, and reviewed youth memories.

Visual aesthetics and efficiency art
"When I Get Home" is aesthetically sensational, boasting excellent cinematography and artwork. Shooting areas include a desert, a planetarium, a rodeo, and a church, among others - staged to represent Solange's intimate individual spaces. The film contains a number of striking imagery, such as black cowboys, taken shape attire, and integrated choreography, representing the extensive culture of black American heritage. It is peppered with a blend of abstract visuals, sluggish motion shots, and bursts of vibrant color that use a feast for the eyes.

Solo's efficiency is itself an artwork-- she welcomes and relinquishes control, molds her body into detailed kinds and shapes, mixes into the background or stands apart in stark contrast. All these aspects combine to develop an effective story about her identity, heritage, and sense of self.

Soundtrack and voiceovers
The soundtrack of "When I Get Home" makes up tracks from Solange's album, With their heavenly tunes, these songs embody the director's point of view and creative expression. The film also consists of voiceovers from Phylicia Rashad, Debbie Allen, Scarface, and other regional Houston figures. They supply commentary and reflections about black history, futurism, and the complexities of house.

Reception
The film premiered at the Houston Museum of Fine Arts in 2019 and was consulted with universal acclaim. Critics praised the movie for its spell-binding visual language, guts to break narrative borders, and its reflection on black identity and womanhood. Audiences lauded Solange's ability to celebrate her roots while leaving sufficient space for analysis and self-questioning.

Conclusion
"When I Get Home" is an immersive, multi-disciplinary, audio-visual project that forges ahead of standard filmmaking. It successfully intertwines music, dance, visual art, and fashion to create an experience that is at as soon as personal and universally relevant. Overall, it is a fantastic display of Solange Knowles' artistry, reflecting her deep connection to her roots, her brave retelling of black stories, and her distinct analysis of home. It leaves an enduring impression, inviting viewers to consider styles of selfhood, heritage, and cultural belonging long after the movie has actually ended.

Top Cast

  • Solange (small)
    Solange
    Self
  • Adam Jabari Davis
    Cowboy
  • A'Ziah King (small)
    A'Ziah King