''R#J'' is a 2021 American

experimental An experiment is a procedure carried out to support or refute a hypothesis, or determine the efficacy or likelihood of something previously untried. Experiments provide insight into cause-and-effect by demonstrating what outcome occurs when a ...

romantic drama film written by Rickie Castaneda, Oleksii Sobolev and Carey Williams, who is also the director. The film stars

David Zayas David Zayas (born August 15, 1962) is a Puerto Rican actor. He is best known for his roles as Angel Batista on Showtime's series ''Dexter'' and Enrique Morales on the HBO prison drama series '' Oz''. Early life Zayas was born in Ponce, Puer ...

María Gabriela de Faría María Gabriela de Faría Chacón (born 11 September 1992), is a Venezuelan actress and singer known for appearing in television series across South America. She has starred as Isabela "Isa" Pasquali in Nickelodeon's '' Isa TKM'', as Mia Novoa ...

, Diego Tinoco and

RJ Cyler Ronald "RJ" Cyler II (born March 21, 1995) is an American actor. He is best known for his roles in the films ''Me and Earl and the Dying Girl'' (2015), ''Power Rangers'' (2017), '' The Harder They Fall'' (2021), and ''Emergency'' (2022) as well ...

. The film is a modern-day adaptation of

Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's natio ...

's romantic tragedy '' Romeo and Juliet'', told through text messages, photos and videos on mobile phones and social media posts. The film had its world premiere at the

2021 Sundance Film Festival The 2021 Sundance Film Festival took place from January 28 to February 3, 2021. The first lineup of competition films was announced on December 15, 2020. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Utah, the festival combined in-person screenings at the Ray ...

on January 30, 2021.

Cast

as Fernando *

as Nancy * Diego Tinoco as Tybalt *

as Benvo * Moe Irvin as Alcide Montague * Jacob Ming-Trent as Friar Lawrence * Emilio Garcia-Sanchez as Sampson * Camaron Engels as Romeo * Siddiq Saunderson as Mercutio * Ricky Russert as Gregory * Francesca Noel as Juliet * DeShawn Cavanaugh as Abram * Matias Ponce as Young Fernando

Release

The film had its premiere in the

on January 30, 2021 in the ''Next'' section. It also screened at South by Southwest in March 2021, where it won the Adobe Editing Award.

Reception

''R#J'' received mixed reviews from critics. The

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

surveyed and, categorizing the reviews as positive or negative, assessed 14 as positive and 13 as negative for a 52% rating. Among the reviews, it determined an average rating of 6.4 out of 10. The critics consensus reads: "''R#J'' represents an admirable attempt to update ''Romeo and Juliet'', but alas, its bounty is not quite as boundless as the sea."

References

External links

* * {{Romeo and Juliet film adaptations American romantic drama films American independent films American avant-garde and experimental films 2021 romantic drama films 2021 independent films 2021 films Films based on Romeo and Juliet Modern adaptations of works by William Shakespeare Films about mobile phones Films about social media 2020s avant-garde and experimental films 2020s English-language films Screenlife films 2020s American films