If I Go Will They Miss Me: Film Review

Though it takes a bit of time, If I Go Will They Miss Me blends complex ideology with confusing emotions in a bittersweet tale of fatherhood and loss.

Though this film tends to spin its wheels a bit too often, it’s hard to be frustrated when those wheels ultimately take us to such interesting, bittersweet, but oddly cathartic places.

Big Ant (J. Alphonse Nicholson, They Cloned Tyrone) has recently been released from a years-long prison sentence. He returns home to lover Lozita (Brooks) and their three children, including his only son Lil Ant (Bodhi Dell), whose view of his father as a god-like figure is tested by Big Ant’s inner demons. Lil Ant also has dreams of flying away from his home troubles but is torn back and forth, with father and son trying to cope with their places in each other’s lives, whether there are such places and whether they even want them.

It’s fascinating how many Sundance movies I’ve come across deal with childhood struggles, and If I Go Will They Miss Me is probably the most esoteric and least accessible one so far. It’s also the one that tried my patience the most. Not that any part of this movie is ever bad or even less than good. The beginning portion firmly establishes the troubled dynamics of Big Ant’s toxicity bleeding through his return home, Lil Ant’s emotional confusion as he tries to reconnect with his father, and Lozita’s continuing efforts to heal all wounds while reconciling with the man Big Ant has become.

There are reasons to sympathize with Big Ant, mainly how he grew up a stupid, reckless kid and how prison then built an even worse person on top of that foundation. He’s an emotionally negligent (at best) bastard to the people he should love most, and he was clearly locked away for good reason. But there are still glimpses of the richer human being he used to be. The question is whether or not they’re enough to keep Lil Ant’s love for him alive, or whether his son will give into the growing realization that he’s better off without his father.

If I Go Will They Miss Me establishes everything pretty early on. And then it’s reestablished. And then again. The scenery is sprinkled with planes flying high above, reflecting Ant’s temptation to fly away from the life he sees forming before him, and the film keeps hammering in that symbolism to a point where it grows tiring. The same applies to admittedly very multifaceted ties to Greek mythology that, again, forces Lil Ant to think about where the skies are that he’s looking to reach, and whether his once-idolized father has ever really been there. 

This all sounds very rich, and it is. It’s just that If I Go Will They Miss Me leans on the same beats for a little longer than I would have liked, making the first half feel very long. Once the story finally picks up, however, this movie suddenly flies by… like a plane, you might say. We get the reckonings we’ve seen coming a mile away, and everyone is forced to stop thinking about where they’ve been and start coming to terms of where they may have to go, if they can even figure that out. Everyone hits all the levels they need to with their performances, but Danielle Brooks shows the widest range and gets easily the best bit of heartbreaking acting in the film.

The many comparisons I’ve seen to Barry Jenkins films couldn’t be more accurate. The quiet harshness of the environments and people, the deep shadows engulfing so many corners of scenery, and the esoteric spectral touches that tip us barely over the edge of reality all wear the Jenkins influence on their sleeve without flat-out copying him. There’s a lot to read into when it comes to all the mythological and spiritual tinges, but the nice thing is that you can still engage with the story even if you can’t quite tell what everything on the periphery means right away.

There are movies that grow on you over time after you finish watching – Zi has done that in the past day – but If I Go Will They Miss Me grew on me during the viewing process itself. If you’re like me, you need to channel a bit of patience to get through that earlier stretch. But if you just let it all wash over you and slowly unveil what it’s truly about, it will get its hooks in the rest of the way through. The final reward is a bold, beautiful ending that’s emotionally confusing in all the ways it should be given everything we’ve seen. In other words, if you go before you’ve seen all it has to say, you will miss out.

If I Go Will They Miss Me was screened at the Sundance Film Festival on January 29 – February 2, 2026.