Plot

Our Song follows three high school

High school

High school is a term used in parts of the English speaking world to describe institutions which provide all or part of secondary education. The term is often incorporated into the name of such institutions....

 girls over one summer in Crown Heights, Brooklyn

Crown Heights, Brooklyn

Crown Heights is a neighborhood in the central portion of the New York City borough of Brooklyn. The main thoroughfare through this neighborhood is Eastern Parkway, a tree-lined boulevard designed by Frederick Law Olmsted extending two miles east-west.Originally, the area was known as Crow Hill....

. The girls, Lanisha (Kerry Washington

Kerry Washington

Kerry Washington is an American actress. She is known for her roles as Ray Charles's wife, Della Bea Robinson, in the film Ray , as Idi Amin's wife Kay in The Last King of Scotland, and as Alicia Masters, love interest of Ben Grimm, The Thing, in the live-action Fantastic Four films of 2005 and 2007...

), Maria (Melissa Martinez), and Joycelyn (Anna Simpson) are best friends and confidants. They have different family situations, different romantic interests, different moral codes and their own unique dreams.

They are all dedicated members of the Jackie Robinson Steppers, a community marching band, that holds daily rehearsals in a local parking lot. The girls want to master the instruments they play in order to impress their conductor.

Joycelyn works at a makeup boutique, while both Marie and Lanisha work at a bakery. Sometimes they talk about what they'll do after high school, but most of their conversations are about the difficult immediate issues that face them daily:

• Their school is not going to reopen in the fall because there is asbestos
  Asbestos
  Asbestos is a set of six naturally occurring silicate minerals used commercially for their desirable physical properties. They all have in common their eponymous, asbestiform habit: long, thin fibrous crystals...
  
   contamination, so they each challenged with finding a new school with a good reputation, enrolling, and planning the daily commute
  Commute
  Commute, commutation or commutative may refer to:* Commuting, the process of travelling between a place of residence and a place of work* Commutative property, a property of a mathematical operation...
  
  .

• Pregnancy
  Pregnancy
  Pregnancy refers to the fertilization and development of one or more offspring, known as a fetus or embryo, in a woman's uterus. In a pregnancy, there can be multiple gestations, as in the case of twins or triplets...
  
   and teen motherhood are serious considerations for the girls, as many of their friends have babies.

Critical response

The film garnered positive reviews. Many of the critics praised director Jim McKay for the documentary-like shooting of the film and its dialogue. Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert

Roger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...

 has said that the film is "original and perceptive" and it doesn't force its characters into a tightly-plotted story. The film has a 90 percent "Fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes

Rotten Tomatoes

Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...

.