"Jimmy" is a review of a new hybrid film directed by photographer Yashaddai Owens, which explores the spirit of writer James Baldwin without functioning as a conventional biopic or documentary. Critic Guy Lodge finds the 68-minute feature an oblique but effective work, noting that despite its unconventional, largely wordless structure, it feels genuinely in touch with its subject in a way more traditional dramatisations might not.

The film follows a version of Baldwin, played by Benny O. Arthur, through Turkey and France, shot in monochrome on a Bolex 16mm camera without disguising its present-day settings. For its opening ten minutes, Baldwin remains an unseen presence as the camera adopts his point of view through the streets of Istanbul, accompanied by a jazz score from Paco Andreo, before he becomes a physical presence once the story shifts to Paris. Having premiered at Telluride nearly two years earlier, the film is only now receiving a US release via Strand Releasing.