“Allswell in New York” - Film Review
Family is a loaded, confusing term. In its most basic definition, the word refers to those who are related to one another by blood and/or marriage. In its actual usage, family is far more fluid. It no longer refers only to those who share genetic material, but also to those who have chosen to be a part of someone’s life. The three women at the center of Allswell in New York are connected by the traditional definition of the word. As they face moments of immense change, they must decide if DNA is enough to stay in each other’s lives.
Daisy (Liza Colón-Zayas) and Ida (Elizabeth Rodriguez) are sisters, and while they’re constants in each other’s lives, they’re not as close as they once were. Serene (Daphne Rubin-Vega) married Daisy and Ida’s brother, Desmond (Felix Solis), and together they have a daughter named Connie (Shyrley Rodriguez). Desmond has struggled with addiction for most of his life, and he’s not actively involved in the lives of these women. When Daisy sees him at a rehab clinic, Desmond finds himself jolted back into a life he’s long left behind. In addition to Desmond’s return, each of the women finds herself at a professional or personal crossroad. Daisy is part owner of a restaurant and has recently had a young pregnant girl (Mackenzie Lansing) move in with her. Daisy plans to adopt the girl’s baby. Ida is a nurse who struggles to provide care in her neighborhood and balance the expectations of bureaucratic red tape. Serene is a vocal coach who has lost her voice and finds her relationship with her daughter at an all-time low.
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All three women, the characters and the actors who portray them, are Nuyorican, a portmanteau of New York and Puerto Rican. Colón-Zayas, Rodriguez, and Rubin-Vega share writing credit for the script of Allswell in New York. The film premiered at Tribeca in 2024, where the three women picked up the award for Best Screenplay. The film’s opening imagery makes it clear that there’s a deep love for the city and the Nuyorican people who inhabit it. As much as it’s a cliche to say, the film acts as a love letter to this neighborhood. Those who grew up in New York exhibit a sense of pride for the city in a way that’s an emotion all its own. In writing Allswell in New York, these three women have penned an ode to the city they love and the women whose paths they have likely crossed while living there.
Allswell in New York stumbles slightly under the burden of giving each of these women their due. They have such immense complications that are all coming to a head at the same time, and the shorter runtime of 89 minutes makes it skew a little toward melodrama. One large, emotionally-charged event after another can lead the audience to feel like the incidents serve no narrative purpose other than to create an emotional response from the viewer. Allswell in New York doesn’t need to add all the heaviness surrounding the return of Desmond. That in itself lends to more than enough complications for the film to unravel. But despite the large number of intense plot points, all three women manage to keep the film’s feet mostly on the ground.
In the series finale of 30 Rock, another NYC-based piece of media, one of the characters bids farewell by saying, “Because the human heart is not properly connected to the human brain, I love you, and I'm going to miss you." While these characters weren’t related in the traditional sense, it speaks to the complicated feelings surrounding those we love. We can be monumentally hurt by the people closest to us, but we can also be supported in a way unlike any other. This is the dueling reality of family, in all definitions, and the beating heart of Allswell in New York.
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