Spike Lee Joint See You Yesterday Takes Us Back To The Future

Back to the Future is one of my all time favorite films!!  I mean how can you go wrong with Christopher Lloyd and Michael J. Fox?  Which begs the question…if time travel were possible what would you change?  I can think of a million different little things I would go back and do differently, but for Claudette the only moment in time she wanted to change was being able to warn her brother before he is shot and killed by the police.

Produced by Spike Lee’s 40 Acres and A Mule Production company, See You Yesterday puts a new spin on police shootings by placing it in a ‘Back to The Future’ premise revolving around two nerdy scientific New York teens.  I was there for all of it!!  so much so, that I really wouldn’t mind seeing this move forward as a weekly series starring the film’s talented crew Eden Duncan Smith (CJ aka Claudette Walker), Dante Crichlow (Sebastian) and Astro (remember him from the US version of X-Factor as Calvin Walker).  All three of the young stars are strong, charismatic and real as black youth tackling the real life obstacles of an urban lifestyle.

Written and directed by Stefan Bristol, you can easily tell that Back to the Future was a cinematic favorite of his to the point of writing in a cameo role for the star of that iconic flick – Michael J. Fox.  See You Yesterday also addresses ever so slightly the frequency at which young black lives are snuffed out over silly things like mistaken shiny items for guns, choke hold deaths, etc.  Especially in New York city where open season on young black youths are an every day occurrence even today.

I loved how Claudette and Sebastian were smart, yet relevant and ride or die friends…literally.  I even like the not so subtle reference to the old classic where running into your future self has consequences that may not necessarily be reversed leaving us with a cliffhanger ending.

Now streaming on Netflix, See You Yesterday made its debut during the 2019 Tribeca Film Festival.