Fun
Frisky
Nostalgic
Intense
Adventurous
Choked Up
Curious
Romantic
Weird
One of Amazon Prime’s Pride Month debuts is September Mornings, a short-and-sweet, five-part series starring Brazilian soul singer Liniker — of Liniker E Os Caramelows fame — as a trans woman whose life is turned upside-down when the son she never knew she had turns up at her door. Filmmaker Fernando Mereilles’ O2 Filmes produced the series, which sets up its protagonist to reconsider rejecting her paternity in the face of the prejudice she faced when she was younger, and still faces today. If that sounds like a compelling dramatic premise, well, you may be right.
SEPTEMBER MORNINGS: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?
Opening Shot: A sunny day. A nice house, maybe upper-middle-class. Two swan planters in the yard, a cross on the chimney brick. A motorcycle pulls into the foreground.
The Gist: That’s Cassandra (Liniker) on the motorcycle. She’s a courier. She rings the doorbell, delivers a bottle of wine to a man who takes one look at her, refuses to verbally address her and slams the door in her face. She heads up the sidewalk and her phone dings. It’s a rating on the courier app: one star. She turns and kicks the head clean off her customer’s Snow White yard decoration.
Cassandra meets up with her boyfriend, Ivaldo (Thomas Aquino), and takes him to her new studio apartment. It’s just been painted, and the fumes are so strong, they can’t spend the night there. It’s not great, but Cassandra’s 30 years old and finally has her own place, a solid relationship and some long-desired independence. She crashes on her close friend Roberta’s (Clodd Dias) couch for one last time. Ro runs the drag club where Cassandra sings. She’s not going to sing Vanusa again, right? Ro asks. Cassandra’s passionate about Vanusa’s music but it doesn’t go over well with the crowd. Cassandra agrees to sing Pabllo. Promise.
Cassandra goes to her new apartment, puts Vanusa’s track “September Mornings” on the turntable. The song ends; the doorbell rings. It’s Leide (Karine Teles), with a 10-year-old boy, Gersinho (Gustavo Coelho). Cassandra treats them coldly, more so after Leide refers to her as “he.” Cassandra once went by Clovis, and had a one-night stand with Leide. Before they leave, Gersinho writes an address and draws a car on Cassandra’s palm. That’s where she can find them.
For now, Cassandra keeps the truth from Ivaldo. She’s preoccupied, deeply troubled as she makes a delivery and tunes up her motorcycle on the side of the road after it breaks down. Meanwhile, Leide hustles bags of potato chips and earbuds on the street. Gersinho calculates that they need to sell 300 bags of chips to get a spot at the boarding house. It doesn’t happen; they sleep in their car again. Cassandra shows up at the club, and Ro manages to pry the truth from her. There’s no way Cassandra isn’t singing Vanusa tonight. No way.
What Shows Will It Remind You Of? September Mornings might not have a path to a big platform like Amazon without shows like Pose and Euphoria — and Laverne Cox’s work in Orange is the New Black — paving the way.
Our Take: September Mornings creator Josefina Trotta sets up the premise nicely, capturing the flavor and texture of Sao Paulo and establishing Cassandra’s character within its social dichotomy. She’s on the cusp of a bright new day in her life, despite her dim, dingy apartment; it’s not much, but it’s hers. Compare that to the Snow White statue man, who lives in a spacious home in idyllic sunlight, but exists morally and spiritually in the dark shadow of prejudice.
There’s a seam or two in Liniker’s performance, betraying a jump from one entertainment medium to another, perhaps. Cassandra’s complex mix of emotions sometimes comes off as brooding petulance. But it’s not a dealbreaker — we’ll root for Cassandra’s happiness and acceptance because we empathize with her story, which will surely deepen as the series continues. And of course, she rocks the musical sequences, when Cassandra sings her heart out, expressing her pain through Vanusa’s songs. To say the world needs more representational stories about trans individuals is an understatement, and that automatically endears us to September Mornings, merely in concept. But in execution, it’s thoughtfully filmed and written, exactly as it needs to be.
Sex and Skin: Brief toplessness.
Parting Shot: A close-up on two pair of feet tangled in bed.
Sleeper Star: Dias brings some color and verve to this melodrama, playing Roberta — who seems to be Cassandra’s rock — as a robust, larger-than-life character, albeit not stereotypically so.
Most Pilot-y Line: Three words change Cassandra’s life, just like that: “Is that him?” Gersinho asks his mother.
Our Call: STREAM IT. September Mornings sets enough of a hook with its debut episode to reel us in. The strong premise has enough potential to carry us over a bump or two and deeper into the series, which has the potential to address universal issues from a Black trans woman’s perspective. That’s exactly the type of representation the world needs.
John Serba is a freelance writer and film critic based in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Read more of his work at johnserbaatlarge.com or follow him on Twitter: @johnserba.
