Why Michael Glover Smith’s “Relative” is One of the Year’s Best Films

I often refer to writer/director Michael Glover Smith’s 2015 debut feature “Cool Apocalypse” as the Windy City’s answer to “Manhattan,” albeit without the creep factor. There is a sequence in which a weary couple, long past the peak of their relationship, cruise down Lake Shore Drive to reflect on all the memories that the iconic Chicago highway evokes. The black and white photography melds beautifully with Aliotta Haynes Jeremiah’s classic tune named after the street, which fuses with the city’s skyline just as “Rhapsody in Blue” did with the Big Apple. Juxtaposed against this couple is a tale of budding romance between two starry-eyed souls who might as well be the older lovers at an earlier time in their lives. Late in the film, the uneasy tension between the foursome is broken by the young woman, who performs an impromptu number out of left field that is the very definition…