By Hannah Bonner

In Cronies, written and directed by Michael J. Larnell, the interviewer probes central character Louis Johnson on whether or not he’s in love with the woman he happens to live with. “Ok,” he finally concedes, “I’m in love, so what?” His concession almost reads like Talib Kweli’s lyrics in “Get By”: “We get high on all types of drugs when all you really need is love to get by.” However, Larnell’s film isn’t interested in heterosexual love or romance or even Kweli’s pronounced social commentary; instead, Larnell hones in on the love, the loyalty, and the loquaciousness of three friends over the course of a St. Louis summer day, hence the inclusion of the definition of “crony” in the title sequence: “a close friend or companion.” It’s this friendship between these three men that allows them to get by.

Additionally, Larnell’s film isn’t necessarily interested in his protagonists casual drug use in the way that films such as Friday (1995) make a spectacle out of smoking weed. The film resists the urge to delve into salacious violence or sex, due, in part to the three men’s impotence when faced with flirting with a blond at a party or pulling the trigger of a gun. Louis Johnson’s two best friends, Andrew S. and Jack, front like they’re players, but their bravado and swagger never scores them anything more than continuous camaraderie within their trio.

It’s a film propelled by dialogue, rather than action, interspersed with interviews of various characters, perhaps a cinematic nod to Spike Lee’s She’s Gotta Have It (1986) (Lee is also the executive producer of Cronies). The film inverts, or, at least, complicates, our societal expectations of men who talk rough or catcall, but, at the end of the day, give a doll to Johnson’s daughter on her birthday or lightly call out white people who like to say, “I got black friends” like it’s a token (cue cringe worthy Amy Schumer moment in Trainwreck). Though an imperfect and, at times, meandering film, Larnell’s debut is a promising engagement, exploring what it means to be a man and, more importantly, exploring what it means to be a friend.