NO ADDRESS - Mark Reviews Movies

No Address, Fathom Entertainment

Follow on Facebook | Follow on Twitter | Become a Patron

Review by Mark Dujsik | February 27, 2025

Just as there's not one reason for homelessness, there's not a single solution to the problem. Don't tell that to the people behind No Address, which is a well-meaning but wholly naïve attempt to dramatize, not only a single community of the unhoused in an anonymous city in the United States, but also some very particular answer to the problem more generally. For the most part, though, the movie almost seems to believe that a person's belief should be enough.

Yes, the filmmakers have a religious angle going here, since every answer to the characters' problems—well, the ones who survive—rests in an overtly Christian organization within the story. Surely, groups like this one must do good work in many cases, so it's not the religious affiliation that's the issue. No, it goes deeper than that for this movie.

For one thing, the movie has an almost romanticized perspective on homeless status, as odd as that may sound. It's odder seeing it in practice in this movie, as the characters form a tight-knit family (and talk about it at every available moment), find themselves going out of their way to stay without a home in certain cases, and seem more productive and happier in this particular state of uncertainty. For that matter, the screenplay by director Julia Verdin and James J. Papa actually gives us the beginnings of a literal romance between two of the main characters—one that's only possible because they're both forced out of troubling home lives.

The central character of the interconnected cast, perhaps, is Lauren (Isabella Ferreira), whom we meet in a prologue showing her as a kid. Her mother dies, leaving her an orphan and putting her into the foster care system. On the day of her high school graduation, Lauren returns to her current foster home to find all of her possessions in garbage bags on the front porch. The foster family has kicked her out, because, as a disembodied voice from inside the house yells, they won't be receiving any money from the system for her.

Again, she's one of several characters who find themselves in a community of unhoused individuals, living in tents on a commercial lot, and are clearly meant to represent assorted causes of homelessness. The de facto leader is Harris (Xander Berkeley), a military veteran and struggling artist, who takes special care of those inside the community.

They also include—or, better, are limited to—Dora (Beverly D'Angelo), a former dancer with unspecified mental health issues, and Violet (Ashanti), another and younger veteran who struggles with drug addiction for exactly one scene. She also sells flowers on the street and soon reveals that she has stomach cancer, which she sees as a death sentence. Harris and, as it turns out, the filmmakers have a rose-tinted view of the kind of treatment a woman such as Violet might receive under these circumstances. Apparently, accepting that one needs and wanting health care are all it takes for something to be done.

That philosophy extends through movie, as Lauren arrives in the community, guided by Jimmy (Lucas Jade Zumann), who has run away from a home with an alcoholic and abusive father. He's a quick learner, apparently, and finds all sorts of ways to get food for himself and his makeshift family. Some of it comes from Gabrielle (Patricia Velasquez), who runs a mission-style organization nearby, handing out supplies to newcomers and making certain to include a Bible in the bag.

Most of this feels oblivious to reality, as Lauren and Jimmy have little adventures, accompanied by sappy music, and kind of flirt with each other. Meanwhile, the major complications have little to do with what some cities are actually doing to prevent the sight of homelessness, as opposed to actually helping the unhoused in any meaningful way, or anything that feels real. Instead, we get a villain in Robert (William Baldwin), who works for a development firm, comes up with a plan to build on the lot, and hires some goons to violently clear out the place. Robert's almost as important to the story as any other character, and as his life takes an ironic turn, that gang of thugs makes it their personal mission to harass our main characters, simply because trying to actually confront the issue of homelessness, its causes, the reality of it, and any solution that's not a miracle fix-all is apparently too much for the filmmakers.

Yes, No Address means well, all the way through its cast members encouraging people to take action during the end credits. As drama, though, the movie is ineffective, and as activism, it feels like wishful thinking.

Back to Home

Buy Related Products