Bus ride to bus ride. These are the bookends to a film about expression and choice. Near the beginning of Miss Rees' film, we watch as Alike changes out of her club clothes in order to wear something that will appease her mother. And then, the film ends with Alike on a bus leaving Brooklyn for Berkley, California in order to begin a writing intensive. One bus represent the choice to be trapped by ones circumstances, allowing fear to be the motivator for why we do what we do and thus the reason for why we become who we are. The other bus represents the freedom to choose our life, no matter how painful our environment or hurtful our relationships are, nothing has the power to drive us away from anything or anyone. This is a choice, and Alike choosing not to run away from her mother, but to run towards her dreams.
This is a bold statement about identity. We live in a world where many people live in a way that meets the needs of another person's standard for how they should live and who they need to be. But, the only way to ever have wholeness and fulfillment of design is to allow the expression of what's good and true to come out from within, and if there is any trace of hatred there is a chance that it will infect you to do a thing to spite someone else. And, Alike does not do this. She loves her mother in spite of her hatred, and that is what makes this movie so powerful and meaningful.
