On the Come Up

Sixteen-year-old Bri Jackson has a gift for rapping and big ambitions for the battle rap circuit. She wants to use her talent to support her family and to honor her father, a local hip-hop figure whose career ended with his death. Money is tight at home, her mother is struggling, and Bri faces pressure at school, so the stakes around her music keep rising. When a track of hers goes viral for the wrong reasons, she has to weigh the honesty that shaped her writing against the image the music business expects her to adopt.

The film is directed by Sanaa Lathan, working from a screenplay by Kay Oyegun and adapting Angie Thomas's novel of the same name. It was produced by Marty Bowen, Timothy M. Bourne and Robert Teitel, with Temple Hill Entertainment, Paramount Players and State Street Pictures behind it. Jamila Gray plays Bri in the lead role, with Noa Dior Rucker as a younger Bri, Sanaa Lathan as Jay, Michael Cooper Jr. as Malik, Miles Gutierrez-Riley as Sonny and Method Man as Supreme, among a credited cast of 42. It runs 115 minutes.

Released on September 23, 2022, the film drew modest audience scores: on IMDb it holds 5.7 out of 10 from 863 votes, and on TMDB 5.9 out of 10 from 33 votes, with the two roughly in agreement.