‘If I Go Will They Miss Me’ movie review: An atmospheric, expressionistic coming-of-age fable
Coming-of-age films thrive on individuality, and Walter Thompson-Hernández’s deeply personal reflection on Black American adolescence is one of the highlights of the 2026 Sundance Film Festival.
Films about youth and growing up have a rare opportunity to be both universally relatable and highly specific. There are some aspects of the adolescent experience that will resonate with audiences of all backgrounds, but they also require an authenticity that can only come from the personal expressions of the writer/director. The Sundance Film Festival has frequently seen the emergence of coming-of-age films like Beasts of the Southern Wild and Boyhood, and If I Go Will They Miss Me follows in that tradition as a declarative work from writer/director Walter Thompson-Hernández.
Thompson-Hernández’s appearance within this year’s Sundance lineup was anticipated because his film serves as an adaptation of the short film of the same name that he debuted years prior. If I Go Will They Miss Me tells the story of Lil Ant (Bodhi Dell), a shy and creative young boy whose interest in drawing and stories have been encouraged by his mother, Lotiza (Danielle Brooks).
Lil Ant’s fantasy about the world beyond his home in the Watts community is shattered by a dose of reality upon the return of his father, Big Ant (J Alphonse Nicholson), who has just been released from prison. Despite having sent flowery letters to his family about the good he will do when he re-enters their lives, Big Ant isn’t quite the father that Lil Ant expected, and doesn’t share his interests at all.
Adapting a short into a feature is always a dangerous endeavour because there are some stories that simply work better as a small-scale, narratively sparse work of experimentation. However, Thompson-Hernández is able to expand upon the elegiac, slightly fantastical style of his original work by offering more details about the community in which he grew up. Even if the film is only representing a very small part of what the Black experience in California looks like, If I Go Will The Miss Me takes the time to create a living, breathing place in which each character has a story to tell. Flashbacks to a younger version of Big Ant, who has long since attracted trouble, highlight just how much it has changed in the years since Lil Ant grew up.
Recurring images in If I Go Will They Miss Me revolve around the heroes and creatures of Greek mythology, which has absorbed the imagination of Lil Ant as he struggles to make friends at school. Although it’s not hard to draw comparisons between the many other films that have been inspired by these iconic stories, If I Go Will They Miss Me makes a case for why they resonate with Lil Ant; for a boy who has barely been beyond the housing projects in which he grew up, these fantastical adventures about gods and monsters feel like unbelievable escapism. It’s also not hard to see why Greek heroes are compelling to Lil Ant, who has himself searched for inner strength.
If I Go Will They Miss Me is more observational than it is narratively-driven, but the primary conflict comes down to the differences between what Lil Ant values and who his father actually is. Despite his years doing time, Big Ant has only toughened up and intends to prepare his son for the cold reality of a life that won’t offer him any keen breaks. While his intentions may seem initially pure, it becomes clear that Big Ant is skating the responsibilities of actually having to be there for his son; as the title might suggest, absence makes the heart grow fonder and tends to obscure more painful memories.
Dell is a true revelation and gives a remarkably nuanced child performance; it’s certainly not easy to read the expressions of a character who is so internalized, but If I Go Will They Miss Me succeeds in identifying Lil Ant’s perspective through gorgeously vivid shots of the community, which seem to have both the baroque sensitivity of John Singleton and the philosophical undertones of Terrence Malick. Although Nicholson’s performance is strong, the segment of the film focused on Big Ant is a bit less compelling because of the conventional way that it is told.
The conclusions that If I Go Will They Miss Me about what fathers pass on to their sons isn’t exactly groundbreaking, but it’s hard to doubt the sincerity of anyone involved. If the original short indicated that Thompson-Hernández felt like an ambitious tease of potential, then the feature film confirms that he has a valuable perspective that should be given room to grow.
