Vague Visages’ Step Back, Doors Closing review contains minor spoilers. Carter Ward’s 2024 movie features Carmen Berkeley as Julisa, Reilly Walters as Ryan and Michelle Macedo as Sierra. Check out the VV home page for more film criticism, movie reviews and film essays.

Carter Ward’s feature directorial debut, Step Back, Doors Closing, matches the tenderness and narrative depth of Richard Linklater’s beloved 1995 romantic drama Before Sunrise. Set in Washington D.C., the film provides a different look at America’s capital city while gently nodding to Gen Z with its character monologues about love in the digital age and unease about the immediate future. The writer/director (a graduate of Fordham University and the great-great-nephew of legendary FBI agent W. Carter Baum) takes a patient approach with his thoughtful direction (in collaboration with cinematographer Jimmy Ferguson), allowing the magical and steamy chemistry between the two fantastic leads to uplift each and every sequence.

In Step Back, Doors Closing, two 24-year-olds cross paths in Washington D.C. Julisa (the gorgeous Carmen Berkeley), a Mexican-American graduate student from Los Angeles, arrives in the city for a women’s leadership conference but can’t reach a friend after breaking both her phone and tablet. On the metro, she meets a local named Ryan (the handsome Reilly Walters, with the looks of a young Michael Fassbender), who just returned from a funeral in Boston after breaking up with his girlfriend of four years. The protagonists quickly hit it off after discovering they have a mutual Instagram friend, and subsequently explore the city together while reconnecting with friends. As I’ve mentioned so many times at Vague Visages, many independent films about twenty-somethings fall apart due to weak supporting performances and poor technical execution, whether it’s rough editing or questionable sound design. However, Step Back, Doors Closing genuinely feels like an authentic Gen Z tour of Washington D.C., from the party sequences (full of believable ambient noises) to the leads’ monument explorations (full of relatable and timely dialogue).

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There’s something special about Ward’s understanding of cinematic flow in Step Back, Doors Closing. When the narrative shifts from intimate conversations between the two leads to social settings involving chatty side players, the writer-director doesn’t lose any momentum, largely due to his casting of talented performers like Ashley Romans (as Ryan’s party girl pal Kesang), Michelle Macedo (as Julisa’s sassy yet down-to-earth friend Sierra) and Mershad Torabi (as a charismatic Moroccan cabbie named Mohammed). Importantly, Ward doesn’t betray his audience by ignoring common Gen Z stereotypes. For example, Ryan states that he just wants to help people but scoffs at a homeless man looking for a few bucks, while Julisa suggests that she’s looking for more than a one-night stand but doesn’t seem ready to do the necessary work. So, as the protagonists grow closer, simply by making the most of their time with each other by opening up, Carter produces the same type of messy magic that permeates throughout Linklater’s “Before” trilogy, and he doesn’t use needle-drops to guide the audience along. Instead, the camerawork does the talking during key moments, most notably during a final act park sequence that parallels the fluid motion of Baz Luhrmann’s fish tank scene in Romeo + Juliet (1996), filmed by cinematographer Donald McAlpine.

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Beyond the constant motion (or so it seems) in Step Back, Doors Closing, there’s a sense of symmetry in each static sequence, due to the cinematography and character staging. And this is where the film’s heart and soul shines through. Whereas Berkeley effectively uses her body to demonstrate Julisa’s claustrophobia and anxiety, Walters utilizes physical space to balance out the energy. He steps back at the most appropriate moments and moves close when the time is right. And when the inevitable discussions about the immediate future arise, both performers quite literally drift apart in the frame before coming together, almost like Julisa and Ryan understand and acknowledge their fate, even though they struggle with their choices in the moment. It’s all quite beautiful and magical, and made even more memorable through Ward’s visual metaphors and thematic callbacks to previous character conversations about destiny and free will. Step Back, Doors Closing is essential viewing for Gen Z movie lovers, Washington D.C. natives and anyone who remains entranced by Linklater’s Before Sunrise.

Step Back, Doors Closing premiered in June 2024 at Dances with Films in Los Angeles. The movie will have its Midwest premiere at the Omaha Film Festival on March 15, 2025.

Q.V. Hough (@QVHough) is Vague Visages’ founding editor. Thank you for reading film criticism, movie reviews and film essays at Vague Visages.

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