Film

Scarborough

Name: Scarborough
Genre: Drama
Released: 2022
Cast: Liam Diaz, Essence Fox, Anna Claire Beitel, Felix Jedi Ingram Isaac, Cherish Violet Blood

Coming-of-age

A Toronto neighbourhood film about childhood friendship in hardship. Scarborough follows three young people navigating poverty, fractured families, and the small kindnesses that hold them together. It's tender and unflinching—no sentimentality, no rescue narrative. For anyone who's felt unseen by mainstream cinema, and for people who simply want to watch good actors discover themselves on screen.

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you are drawn to quiet, observational coming-of-age stories where small daily routines carry the emotional weight and a patient camera trusts its young characters.

Skip it if you want a brisk plot with clear stakes, since at 138 minutes this moves unhurriedly and lingers in long quiet stretches between events.

What it asks of you: Settle in for a little over two hours at an unhurried pace, paying close attention to faces and small gestures rather than to what the plot is doing next.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

Moonlight2016

Three chapters of a Black man's life, told through water and light and careful silences. Like Scarborough, it finds grace in confinement and builds its emotional power through what remains unspoken.

But It moves slowly and demands patience. Some find the pacing distant rather than meditative.

The Florida Project2017

Children living in motel poverty, shot with such visual warmth and humour that it refuses to pity them. Both films trust kids to carry the weight of the story without breaking them.

But The ending is punishing in a way that lingers uncomfortably long after the credits roll.

Never Rarely Sometimes Always2020

Two girls, one crisis, minimal dialogue. It observes with the same quiet intensity as Scarborough—finding humanity in the smallest gestures and the spaces between words.

But Nearly wordless cinema isn't for everyone. Some will find it frustratingly opaque rather than poetic.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Scarborough

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Minari2021

Both films centre immigrant and marginalized communities with full humanity, not as problems to solve. They allow their characters dignity without demanding gratitude.

A Korean-American family farming in Arkansas. It shares Scarborough's refusal to separate joy from struggle—these characters laugh and fight and grieve in the same scene. The connection: both films centre immigrant and marginalized communities with full humanity, not as problems to solve.

But The rural setting and agricultural detail may feel slow if you want dramatic incident. Some find it too gentle.

The Farewell2019

Family, secrets, and cultural disconnection. Uses intimate moments and dark humour to explore what it means to belong nowhere and everywhere at once.

But The tonal shifts between comedy and heartbreak may feel uneven if you're expecting consistency.

Aftersun2022

A father and daughter on holiday, memory fractured and impressionistic. Both films understand that emotional truth lives in texture and mood rather than exposition.

But It's deliberately oblique. If you need narrative clarity and closure, you'll leave frustrated.

mid90s2018

Skateboard kids in LA finding family in each other. Jonah Hill's directorial debut captures that specific ache of adolescence and belonging with real gentleness.

But The slice-of-life approach means very little happens by conventional plot standards.

First Reformed2018

Paul Schrader's austere examination of faith and despair. Both films hold their characters accountable while refusing to judge them—a rare balance.

But It's bleak, formally cold, and the ending pivots into territory that will alienate many viewers.

Beasts of the Southern Wild2012

A girl and her father in poverty-stricken Louisiana. Stunning magic-realist cinematography that doesn't soften the material—beauty and hardship coexist.

But The magical elements divide viewers sharply; some find them transcendent, others find them distracting.

Eighth Grade2018

Bo Burnham's portrait of a shy thirteen-year-old navigating social media and adolescence. Quietly observant, occasionally hilarious, never mean to its characters.

But If you're not emotionally available for cringe humour and uncomfortable silences, it will exhaust you.

Incendies2010

Both examine how poverty and trauma echo through families across generations, shaping who children become before they can choose.

Denis Villeneuve's devastating family mystery spanning continents and generations. Formally precise and emotionally shattering. The connection: both films understand that trauma echoes through bloodlines and that children inherit their parents' histories whether they want to or not.

But It requires serious emotional labour. The final revelation is the kind of gut-punch that some viewers find exploitative rather than earned.

BEEF2023

Both are formally precise portraits of characters compressed by economic precarity. Beef is what happens when Scarborough's kids grow up in a system that never gave them a chance.

A limited series about two strangers whose road-rage incident spirals into obsession. Like Scarborough, it's about people trapped by circumstance and class, but it turns the knife—these are adults where Scarborough focuses on kids, and the damage is visible and irreversible. Shot with precision and played with devastating naturalism.

But It's relentlessly tense and offers no catharsis or comfort. Watching two people destroy each other is compelling but exhausting.