For most young adults, graduation day is when high school students look forward to stepping into whatever the future has in store for them.
But for Lauren, high school graduation only serves as a reminder of the day her foster parent left her to sleep on the street.
Lauren isn’t sure where to go. She has no food or money—and none of her high school friends are willing to let her stay with them. She spends that night at a homeless encampment. As far as Lauren can see, she has no friends and no family. She is utterly alone.
But she’s not alone. Because with her at the camp are people like Jimmy, a young man with a heart for meeting the needs of everyone in the camp. There’s Harris, the elderly veteran who sells his paintings to provide for and protect the group. And we meet people like Violet and Dora: the former teaches Lauren how to adjust to her new life, while the latter provides something like motherly comfort.
Together, they care for each other, even as others would look to rob them or think of them as little more than litter that city hall needs to remove.
So while Lauren doesn’t have a roof over her head, for the first time in many, many years, she begins to feel as if she truly has a family.
Lauren ends up at a homeless camp, where Jimmy quickly brings her into the fold. And it quickly becomes apparent that Jimmy considers the other homeless people there to be his family—a belief that the others reciprocate, too. When someone gets into trouble or lost, the others rescue them. And though they recognize that they aren’t perfect, their love for each other speaks louder than their circumstances.
No Address reminds audiences that those who don’t have homes are still people of dignity and value made in the image of God. Likewise, while the movie doesn’t deny that some people may become homeless due to their own bad decisions, it also reminds viewers that many people end up in that situation via circumstances outside of their control.
One homeless man, Harris, looks after the members of their camp. For instance, when a woman arrives intoxicated, he throws out her drugs. He tells her that, like her, he was once addicted to drugs; but he’s now been five years sober, and he can’t keep watching her slowly kill herself.
A man, after losing everything, better recognizes the value of time with his son. A mother likewise ceaselessly searches for her homeless son.
A woman tirelessly advocates for the homeless, speaking with government officials about how they might positively impact this situation. She provides food and medicine to the homeless, and she offers them open spots at shelters. A boy offers food to members of the camp, too. When Lauren gets attacked by a group of thugs, people rescue and protect her.
We’re told that 50% of net proceeds for the film go to nonprofits and churches that combat and address the homelessness crisis.
Lauren’s story throughout the film showcases how God can allow us to undergo trials—especially those we don’t understand in the moment—to transform us or move us into a better situation for His glory.
When Lauren gets kicked out of her home by her foster parent, she cries out to God, “Why do You keep taking everyone and everything from me? Momma was wrong about You; You don’t answer prayers.” Through her experience being homeless, however, Lauren later says that God works in mysterious ways. And though she was lost, He found her.
“So, next time you see someone in need, have faith, for He might be working a miracle through you to bring someone back home for good,” she narrates. The line is reminiscent of James 2:14-17’s teaching that our faith motivates us toward good works on behalf of others.
Harris describes himself as a Protestant. Following someone’s death, someone says, “I know you believed in God and are in a better place now.” One character claims, “God takes care of those who take care of others.”
A sign over the homeless camp reads, “Love your neighbor as yourself,” quoting Matthew 22:39. People pray for others. Someone crosses herself. Lauren works with the Salvation Army.
A man kisses his wife.
Men catcall a woman. Three men grab Lauren and insinuate that they’ll sexually traffic her, saying, “She could make a bit of money for us, that is, if we clean her up a bit.” Men grab a woman and harass her, asking if she wants company. Someone attempts to kidnap a woman. Men pin an unwilling woman against a wall.
Someone is stabbed and bleeds heavily. One person is accidentally hit by a car and dies. A mother suddenly collapses to the ground while baking in her kitchen, passing away. A woman foams at the mouth as she overdoses on drugs. We overhear that a man has died.
People spray a homeless woman with water to clear her from the homeless camp. A couple of characters get kicked in the ribs by attackers. Someone knees a man in the groin. Someone headbutts another man. People fistfight. A man is beaten up and robbed. An abusive husband pins his wife against a wall and yells at her.
Someone harasses Harris, accusing him of enjoying the killing of children, since he’s a military veteran. People get robbed at knifepoint.
We hear one use each of “a–,” “b–tard,” “d–n” and “pr-ck.” God’s name is misused twice. Someone refers to homeless people as “trash.” A husband verbally berates and screams at his wife.
A woman comes back to the homeless camp intoxicated. Another man throws away her drugs, forcing her to get clean. There’s a reference to someone supplying a woman with drugs. A man drinks liquor. Someone drinks a beer. An alcoholic man complains that his wife didn’t get him beer. We later see the man inebriated, shouting at his son.
A mother advocates for a divorce. Parents argue in front of their child, distressing him. Someone wastes limited family funds hoping to make a quick buck. A foster parent kicks her child out when she realizes she won’t be getting any additional foster checks. A father kicks his son out of the house.
Sometimes, we can brush across the issue of homelessness with such broad strokes as justification for an uncaring heart.
Well, he’s homeless, we might think. He probably did something to put himself in that situation.
And with a simple thought, we quietly and perhaps reflexively justify why we’ve ignored the many, many verses in Scripture that instruct us to care for the poor and needy, for the widows, orphans and foreigners. And those verses don’t, I might add, qualify giving to the poor with the caveat, “unless their poverty is a result of their own actions.”
No Address reminds us of that truth.
We don’t merely see its characters as we pass by in our cars; we’re brought into their day-to-day lives, learning bits and pieces about who they are as people. They aren’t caricatures; they’re individuals with hopes, dreams, desires and loves. And sure, it may be true that some of them still struggle with bad choices. But even if they do, would we dare to claim they’re not worthy of the same compassion that our God, who is rich in mercy, freely gave to spiritually homeless sinners like us?
Our instinct may be to look the other way. But No Address forces us to stop, saying, “No. Look. These are people.” And as we’re invited into the crude conditions our main cast of characters endure, faces become names, and names become known. Each person comes from a variety of circumstances; none of them expected to end up homeless, enduring the violence and drug use we see onscreen. Sometimes, there’s nothing they can do but watch as a friend passes away.
But in the personalization of those hard moments, No Address ultimately reminds viewers that real people face these circumstances. The story encourages all of us—both those who are vulnerable and those who may be able to help—to recognize the many resources and organizations that exist to combat homelessness. The movie puts its money where its mouth is, too, by donating half of its net proceeds to nonprofits and churches fighting the issue.
No Address is not an easy film, and some families may well decide that its harder moments are too mature for the youngest of audiences. But sometimes, movies need a bit of that difficulty to make their point, too—a point that could easily lead to a deeper conversation about these themes with your teen.
No Address probably won’t be the most impressive film, visually, that moviegoers will see this year. But its message may just revive a little more grace in viewers’ hearts regarding the harsh realities of the homelessness crisis.
Kennedy Unthank studied journalism at the University of Missouri. He knew he wanted to write for a living when he won a contest for “best fantasy story” while in the 4th grade. What he didn’t know at the time, however, was that he was the only person to submit a story. Regardless, the seed was planted. Kennedy collects and plays board games in his free time, and he loves to talk about biblical apologetics. He thinks the ending of Lost “wasn’t that bad.”
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