If I Go Will They Miss Me — Review

There is no shortage of films about father-son relationships, and writer-director Walter Thompson-Hernandez’s If I Go Will They Miss Me wears its inspirations on its sleeve. Some viewers might therefore deem the film derivative of works like Charles Burnett’s Killer of Sheep (1978) or Billy Woodberry’s Bless Their Little Hearts (1984), particularly given that both films are set in the Watts area of Los Angeles, or even of more recent films exploring Black masculinity, such as Barry Jenkins’ Moonlight (2016) and Akinola Davies Jr.’s My Father’s Shadow (2025). Yet If I Go Will They Miss Me takes these familiar themes and approaches them with a distinct sensibility of its own. It takes a special kind of film to feel so intimate and specific yet strikingly universal.