Can’t Let it Go

Director-writer Roy Szuper’s comedy anthology Can’t Let it Go features five vignettes about New Yorkers contemplating the momentous 2016 U.S. presidential race a few days before the election. 

The characters include a gay Black man working as a Trump diversity token, a dominatrix who campaigns for Hillary Clinton, a blue-collar independent who may or may not vote for Trump, a conservative Cuban immigrant waiter and his socialist daughter, and a Trump campaign manager and his British model girlfriend. The conversations have a distinctive NYC quality and reflect thoughts and feelings that were all around us before the U.S. entered the first Trump era. 

Mario Cantone essentially plays himself as Bernie, partner to the Trump campaign token Black man, Clayton (Rick Younger). When they meet Bernie’s Jewish parents for dinner, it becomes clear that Bernie’s father is a Zionist bigot who is considering voting for Trump. 

Anna Benoit faces Rick Younger in a politically charged moment in Can’t Let It Go.

“…New Yorkers contemplating the momentous 2016 U.S. presidential race…”

George (Jonathan Crimeni) is a right-wing businessman working for the Republican campaign machine. His girlfriend Paige (Ella Loudon) is a European model who had never given much thought to American politics. When she begins to grow in her understanding of what a Trump presidency would mean, friction and sparks are inevitable. 

Can’t Let it Go is a ground-level NYC snapshot of the days before and just after the 2016 election. The characters have relatable lives and real concerns, biases, and hopes for the country in a gentle wave of conversation that largely eschews the bombastic vitriol that characterizes the polarization we now endure. Cantone is always entertaining, but proves here that he can deliver a dramatic turn as well.

While living through the hell of Trump 2.0, as our democracy is cratering all around us, finding this film funny has an element of “too soon” to it, and yet, it is funny and bittersweet seeing the fading world of the before-times. It’s like watching recordings of news from the morning of September 11, 2001, before 9 AM. The people depicted lived in an entirely different world than we do now. 

Szuper’s film shows different perspectives of New Yorkers coping with that burgeoning new world in a comedic context. All the tense, uncomfortable moments we’ve had with people as political battle lines were drawn are rolled out here with humor. It’s a tightrope act to make the audience laugh while you break their hearts, and Szuper pulls it off.

For screening information, visit the Can’t Let It Go official website.