Just let it go. But Keith(McCaul Lombardi) can't let it go; that's why he spent two years in prison. To the naked eye, Keith looks like everybody else, pushing his shopping cart around a supermarket, loading it up with junk food. Nobody would ever guess that an ex-con was in their midst. He passes an old acquaintance, one of his former partners-in-crime who showed up at his house unannounced; a drug dealer who once dated Kate(Marin Ireland), his older sister. Keith was their bagman; they want him to be their bagman again. Just in case Keith didn't catch their hint the first time around, a white van driven by his sister's shady ex-beau plows into the shopping cart, scattering bags of Cheetos all over the asphalt lot. "Sollers Point", directed by Matthew Porterfield, the audience can tell, is not going to be one of those inspirational films like Jamal Joseph's "Chapter and Verse". Joseph, a former Black Panther, served a six-year sentence in a federal penitentiary, then went on to become a poet, an author, a playwright, and director. Lance(Daniel Beaty), a former gang leader, in "Chapter and Verse", returns to Harlem a changed person; a man who paid his debt to society, and is willing to take a demeaning job below his skill level rather than return to his old hustling ways. Keith is going to end up back in prison, because he can't let it go. He chases Aaron(Tom Guiry) down in his jalopy and bashes the van's two back window with a baseball bat.
The Cheetos was for his niece's birthday party. At twenty-six, the man-child still lives with dad. Keith pulls up to the curb in front of the old man's house, just as Kate turns off her ignition in the driveway. Jessie(Everleigh Brenner) rushes up to her uncle and give him an unabashed hug without hesitation or fear. The same man whose first instinct is to start a war after just getting his anklet bracelet taken off, also can give and receive unconditional love with blood relatives. Keith's sister and niece don't judge him, unlike Carol(Jim Belushi), dad, who should have answered "you're not letting us down" instead of "so stop doing it" when he tries to apologize for being such a disappointment and loser. While Carol does on his granddaughter, Keith catches up with his big sis. Without the slightest trace of irony, he asks Kate why she moved away to Virginia, just mere minutes after his run-in with her former beau, a drug dealer. A frustrated Keith is going to miss Jessie's birthday party because he can't leave Maryland without his parole officer's permission. Instead of stating the obvious, she deflects, explaining that his niece wanted to celebrate her birthday with friends. On Aaron's Facebook page, the audience sees Kate's former life as some anonymous homegirl, sitting on a thug's lap, like she was property. Had Kate hung around the depressed neighborhood, she could have ended up in the same fix as her older brother, watching Jessie blow out candles online, but from a women's prison.
"I Used to Be Darker", Matthew Porterfield's previous film, chronicled the problems of people from a more affluent part of Maryland. Abby(Hannah Gross) lives in a fancy Ocean City house with a pool, but her parents, Kim(Kim Taylor) and Bill(Ned Oldham) are getting a divorce. Mom and dad are musicians, but Bill quit the music business and made it possible for his wife to live the dream, by earning enough money for both of them. Kim, a singer-songwriter in the folk vein, met somebody new, a young guitarist who plays in her band. Abby, an aspiring actress, is saddened by this fissure in her life, but she has the luxury of money to cushion the blow. The economic downturn that is ravaging the rust belt has no effect on her.
Bethlehem Steel went out of business in 1995. The Pennsylvania-based company couldn't compete with cheap foreign steel. An unwillingness to portend for the future by embracing technology was the fault of short-sighted management. Also, on a micro level, Bethlehem Steel didn't address poor labor conditions. Carol worked his entire adult life at Bethlehem Sparrows Point Shipyard. Ultimately, "Sollers Point" is about how outsourcing can devastate a small-town. Corporate greed, and prioritizing the bottom line over working class Americans, has ramifications for future generations to come. The ongoing decimation of the middle class will someday transform Sollers Point into a ghost town. Because the shipyard closed down, Marquis(Breiyon Bell-El), Keith's friend, whose father worked with his father at "The Point", wouldn't be some smalltime drug dealer with grandiose dreams of being the next great hip-hop star. Sollers Point, a heavily-integrated neighborhood, for now, is quiet, but black and white, inevitably, will fight over turf, and that's how blood gets shed. Keith is the linchpin; it's not hard to suss out the problem, when the ex-con starts working for the "hood-rats" instead of his white homeboys.
Twenty years later, Carol still gets together with old shipyard friends and relive the glory days of working at Bethlehem Sparrows Point over their long-standing poker game. The robbing of his legacy is eating Keith alive; he blows up, knocking the cards and poker chips off the table, in reaction to all their braggadocio talk. Their nostalgia is like a knife to his heart. Ladybug(Lynn Cohen), his grandmother, wants Keith to finish school, since all grandmas think their grandsons are booksmart. When he checks out the local community college, however, a faculty member reminds Keith that the school is a nonsmoking campus, when he lights up a cigarette. This oblivious faux pas has less to do with Keith being a felon out on parole than somebody who comes from blue collar stock and was predestined to clock in and clock out at a factory-like environment. Courtney(Zazie Beetz), his ex-squeeze, moved on with her life while he was incarcerated. If the audience does the math, they can surmise that this couple was high school sweethearts. After graduation, the story was supposed to write itself; like his father before him, Keith would get his union card, put in a good honest day's work at the shipyard, go home for dinner with Courtney and the kids, and retire with a full pension. But labor is cheap in China. Keith had to write his own story. Lured by a quick buck, Keith made some poor choices, and landed himself in prison. End of story.
Keith needs somebody to blame, so he blames Carol. The prodigal son resents everything his father has; a house in his own name, a well-tended lawn, those damn cats, and a car that he washes and polishes at leisure. Keith steals the keys to the Chevy and drives it straight into the Atlantic coastline. He meant to kill himself but the water was too shallow. Not enough ocean fills the car.
In the dark, wet, he walks home. Courtney sees him approaching, but she keeps on driving. The woman has enough on her plate. The only difference between her an Keith is that she doesn't have a permanent record. "Sollers Point" is about a dead man's town. Carol's wife, Keith's mother, died, literally.
The credits roll as he walks toward an uncertain future; his life, in limbo.
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