I watched "As I Am" after reading the reviews on this site. I'm not sure why I read the reviews first, and I'm not sure why I watched the movie after reading them, since they seemed to be largely negative. Normally that would have put me off, but the trailer was intriguing enough to me that I decided to give it a go anyway.
I won't lie: much of the negativity on here is definitely justified, if maybe a little bit overreactive (several people have complained about the sound quality, for instance, but I did not notice anything particularly amiss about it, and that's something that *would* bother me if it was present). The worst aspect of the movie by far is the writing, acting and direction of the principal adult characters. As the respective parents of Emmanuel and Demetrius, the two young men who are the romantic protagonists of the story, they simply do not resemble any real people on this planet - they are over the top caricatures and stereotypes saying and doing ridiculous things, and I was cringing in disbelief watching their scenes (some of which appear to be intended as comic relief but fall way short of the mark). It's hard to pick who is the worst offender, but my vote would be Rodney Chester as Kevin, one of Demetrius' adoptive fathers who's way too in touch with his inner "sassy black woman". A truly obnoxious performance.
The shallow awfulness of these characters and their detrimental effect on the movie as a whole cannot be overstated. Which is too bad, because Emmanuel and Demetrius, whose story this is, are actually interesting and appealing. They could have been better developed (the film is very short for a feature, clocking in at just over an hour, so a little more time spent on the principal relationship would not have been a bad thing), but Andre Myers (playing Emmanuel) and Jerimiyah Dunbar (Demetrius) have a great chemistry together and are very convincing in their roles. Myers has the more difficult part - his socially awkward Emmanuel appears almost on the autism spectrum at times - but he pulls it off admirably, and Dunbar has a natural screen presence, making Demetrius very likable, with both worldliness and vulnerability. The ending is abrupt and very clumsily handled - Emmanuel confronts a familial abuse situation from his past, but it's just barely touched on, and the next thing you know the two romantic heroes are apparently heading off together for parts unknown. I did find it believable that the two characters would fall for each other (primarily because of the actors' skills, I think), but the writer would have done well to flesh out their relationship more.
I wouldn't say this is a good movie, but it does have some worthwhile ideas floating around in it, and I did like the two lead actors and the relationship they portrayed. If you watch it, my advice would be to fast forward through any scenes that the parents are in - you won't be missing anything.
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