“Off and Running” Movie Trailer Review

By our guest blogger, Michaela Zanello

From director Nicole Opper, “Off and Running” is an engrossing coming-of-age documentary about an adopted Brooklyn teen named Avery, who is beginning to question her true identity. The film follows Avery through her turbulent teenage years as she embarks upon a complex journey of racial, familial and self-exploration that ultimately threatens to upset the loving family and life she always has known.

Avery is 16 years old. She is intelligent, curious and a gifted track star. Living with her two white, Jewish, lesbian mothers, her mixed-race older brother, and her younger Korean brother, Avery, who is black, is being raised in a highly blended and well-adjusted family. Avery loves her family very much, but at the same time, she feels compelled to connect with her racial roots. Consequently, Avery attempts to get in touch with her birth mother, who has been living in Texas. At first, this seems like a step in the right direction for Avery, but she soon finds herself trudging through a quagmire of adolescent anguish, self-doubt and self-pity that leads her to venture into risky behaviors that jeopardize both her familial relations and her shot at getting a track scholarship.

The trailer for “Up and Running” uses the film’s footage and interview clips in a very effective way that allows the emotional hub of the film to be successfully tapped into and conveyed. The first scenes evinced in the trailer seek to paint an intimate portrait of Avery’s family as being unique and very close-knit. As the accompanying score of violins escalates to become more intense, so does the film’s drama. When asked if she feels black, Avery responds, “I don’t know what that means.” From there, the trailer substantiates the emotional tensions that arise between Avery and her family in a way that is entirely palpable to the viewer. The trailer concludes with a scene of Avery at her most vulnerable, which proves very effectual at spiking the viewer’s interest to see whether or not Avery will be able to get her life back on the track in this probing and immensely gratifying family case study.

Watch the movie trailer for "Off and Running" below. What are your thoughts?