We Rip the World Apart

Carr (Hold My Girl) spotlights a woman torn between activism and self-preservation in this complex family saga. Kareela Jackson, a 24-year-old biracial social worker in Halifax, Nova Scotia, remains scarred by the death of her older brother, Antony, 18 years earlier. An outspoken critic of the police, he was shot by cops in Toronto under murky circumstances that were deemed justified. The siblings’ parents—Evelyn, a white woman, and Kingsley, a Jamaican man—reacted differently to their loss; Evelyn initially neglected Kareela before becoming overprotective, while Kingsley fell into depression. Now, galvanized by increased attention on racist police violence, Kareela joins the Black Lives Matter movement and gives a speech about what happened to her brother. Meanwhile, she learns she’s unexpectedly pregnant by her white boyfriend, Thomas, and questions whether she wants to keep the baby. Thomas, excited to become a father, is upset by her ambivalence, which stems from how her own mother treated her. Kareela’s struggles to decide whether to become a parent, an activist, or both alternate with illuminating flashbacks from Evelyn’s perspective about being part of a mixed family and her evolving relationship with Kingsley. Carr shrewdly avoids pat resolutions of these fraught interpersonal dynamics, resulting in a satisfying and sophisticated tale. (Jan.)