Anthony Bawn is the co-writer, producer, director and main actor in this feature. Bawn has been working as a filmmaker for over a decade. He first created a web series called Cheetah in August (2015), which ran for a couple seasons. Nearly a decade later, Bawn re-packaged the series and edited the short episodes into a feature called August: Love vs God (2024). He created another web series called Conframa (2018), which ran for several seasons, produced about a dozen episodes or so. He then did the same thing where he took those episodes and packaged them into a feature called Conframa: The Triangle Trials (2024). I bring this up because this feature, Almost Us (2026), feels like it started as a web series that Bawn re-packaged into a feature, cutting out a lot of stuff that would've helped to flesh out this world or this story. Even the ending feels like Bawn was simply setting up for the next episode or next season of probably what should have been a TV or web series.
Bawn stars as Jason Cooper or "Jay," the head of the Baldwin Community Center in Phoenix, Arizona. The center is very important because it provides a lot of social services, including housing or shelter for battered women or homeless people in general. It does book drives. It probably provides a apace for recreational activities, including games and sporting events, as well as meeting rooms for groups like choirs, which this film briefly depicts. We don't see much else of what the community center does or much of the people it purports to help. If this were an episodic series, Bawn could've delved into the center's activities more. It would have helped us watching this narrative to invest in the community center, if we had seen more of how it actually helps people in Phoenix. "Jay" claims that his mom used to run the place and he inherited it after she died. He also says it was where he got clean and that it's a place for people in recovery. If we had be shown more scenes of the center helping people in recovery like Jay himself, that would've been more engaging. Other than the one brief choir scene, the center feels like an ephemeral thing or a MacGuffin that this narrative bats around.
Adri Kennedy, in his feature debut, co-stars as Darren Bennett, a real estate developer who works for a company that wants to tear down the community center. The company is a family business that seems to have been started by Darren's father. His father has since passed and the board of the company contains Darren's mother, aunt and siblings, including his older brother and sister. His aunt seems to be the most outspoken executive at the company, pulling a lot of the strings. Darren is supposed to oversee this project to tear down the community center for a development that's allegedly worth millions. However, things change when Darren ends up in bed with Jay and the project to tear down the center gets paused.
Lydia Corbin (Midnight in Phoenix) plays Auntie Gloria, the aforementioned, outspoken board member at Darren's company. She wonders why Darren stopped the demolition of the center. She also wonders why Darren hasn't asked his girlfriend to marry him. She doesn't necessarily know that Darren is a closeted homosexual. She might know and is simply trying to squelch it for whatever reason. There's a guess that one can make as to why, but this feature doesn't really explore Gloria's character beyond her being someone who is all about money and material things like buying shoes in Monaco.
Adrianna Licitra (Scottsdale) plays Noma, the girlfriend to Darren who seems to be only dating Darren for his money or his family's money. It's not as if her family doesn't have some kind of wealth and power, but she seems to want even more money and power. She seems to know that Darren is closeted, but yet she still wants to marry him or be in a relationship with him. The final scene suggests why. Apparently, Noma is a trust-fund baby, but the only way she gets the money from her trust is if she does certain things, including marrying and having a child of her own. That works as a motivation to keep things going with Darren, but the ending throws that motivation into chaos and confusion. It seems as if she is supposed to marry and have a baby with Darren, and only him, but the ending suggests that it doesn't have to be Darren. It could be anybody. If that's the case, then the question is why is she pursuing someone whom she knows is gay? Why not find someone who is straight and more importantly who would love her back?
Strangely, Noma and Darren don't actually have any scenes together. It makes it difficult to truly understand what their arrangement is and what the dynamic is between them that is largely motivating both of their actions. The majority of Noma's scenes are actually with Darren's brother, Eric Bennett, played by Devere Rogers (My Spy: The Eternal City and Abbott Elementary). At first, it seemed like something was going to happen between Eric and Noma. In terms of all the roles, Eric is probably the most complicated and the most developed character. He gets a lot of moments to shine and to show his range. His monologue at the end takes the film into a whole new direction, involving pathos and tragedy. That monologue almost feels out of place in a film that's built mostly on Jay and even characters like Antwan, played by Shannon D. Woods, being sassy and silly. What the character of Eric reveals at the end represents a tone shift that felt like, if this were a series, should have been its own separate episode.
The narrative seems like it's set up to be a love story between Jay and Darren. I appreciate it because it's rare to have a love story with a character like Jay, in terms of being Black, and openly queer, non-monogamous, and non-apologetic about it, while actually showing someone of his body type having intense, intimate scenes. I also appreciate the feature showing that someone like Jay has an active sex life where he can hook-up with all kinds without shame or regret on either side. However, if this is meant to be a love story, that love story gets lost in what becomes business and political machinations. This is fine. Romance doesn't have to be the end-all and be-all, but anyone watching this needs to temper their expectations and realize it's not building to a romantic conclusion, or happily ever after per se.
If anyone wants a film by Bawn or VIM Media, which is Bawn's company, that has a happier or more romantic ending, you can watch As I Am (2020), which deals with heavy topics, as this film does, or Franklin (2025), which is probably my favorite of the films under the VIM Media banner.
Not Rated but contains substance use, foul language and sexual content.
Running Time: 1 hr. and 20 mins.
