Most of us missed the 2015 B-movie “Brotherly Love,” a lame “Romeo & Juliet” enlivened by the presence of that force of nature, Keke Palmer.

But now it’s on Netflix, and for anyone of the Keke Completist persuasion — don’t brag about seeing “Nope” if you haven’t seen “Pimp” — it’s an interesting turn, her last hurrah as a high schooler in a “street” drama that lets her sing.

“Brotherly Love” is a Philly-with-a-capital-P tale of gang violence, hoops, romance and families ties, produced by Will Smith, who gets a shout-out in the many expositional speeches about famous Black Folks from Philly that pepper the screenplay’s dialogue.

Keke is our ever-narrating Jackie, the teen girl in a family featuring a blue chip hoops recruit, Sergio, “Serge” (Eric D. Hill, Jr.) and a drug dealing gangster older brother, “June,” short for “Junior” (Cory Hardircht), a guy who likes to spread the cash around and “take care” of everybody, their alcoholic widowed mom (Macy Gray) included.

As a gang hit/mass-shooting is the film’s opening scene and an ill-fated love affair is at its heart, we know this has a whiff of Shakespeare in its tragic intent. It doesn’t embarrass the Bard or anybody involved. But it’s pretty ham-fisted and clumsy as an overreach.

Their neighborhood has “The Hill” and “The Bottom,” and never-the-twain shall meet, with rich African Americans residing on high and those still struggling, fighting and grubbing away on the streets below.

Jackie’s family lose their musician Dad, and that’s put June in charge of providing. Mom (Gray) has crawled into a bottle.

Sergio is an underclassman headed for “a D-one” basketball school and he hopes, the NBA. Jackie’s a cheerleader with Philadelphia Music Academy dreams. June is just trying to keep the coming “war” at bay long enough to help them achieve their goals.

And then rich kid Chris (Quincy Brown) shows up, with his AMG Mercedes, dad in the Philly music business and eye for Jackie. She’s leery. We’re leerier.

As is June, who wonders what this pretty boy from The Hill and gangs associated with it wants with his sister.

“I’m gonna keep it 100 percent with you” talks don’t dissuade our “Romeo.” Nor does the rising violence around them, some of it perpetrated by trigger-happy lieutenants of June.

Characters like narrator Jackie and local barber Uncle Ron (Faizon Love) launch into speeches about Kobe and Will Smith and other famous African-Americans from Philly without prompting.

“I done seen this ‘hood take down the best!”

The first act is littered with uses of the Philly slang “jawn,” related to music, ambitions, life skills and the like.

But just as you’re settling into the feeling that this story of hoops, gang violence, teen love and “green,” isn’t bad, it trips over itself and wish fulfillment fantasy morphs into formula.

As much as “Brotherly Love” immerses itself in The Sound of Philadelphia, the clumsy contrivances of the plot render those moot, sometimes laughably so.

Palmer gives her character edge and a romantic Achilles heel, and it’s not enough to paper over the character and the plot’s many blind spots. She’s always been fun to watch, but a scene in the recording studio when her new suitor hooks her up with an impromptu recording session is an eye-roller that stops the picture dead. And it’s not alone.

Yes, we know she can sing and that she is an unfiltered, exhuberant queen of social media. But the main message of “Brotherly Love” is how lucky she was to be tossed the lifeline of “Nope” and have a role that plays to her chatty, charismatic and daffy strengths.

This B-movie might have been her future, and that one isn’t as bright as the one she’s facing now, with or without a record deal.

Rating: R, violence, profanity

Cast: Keke Palmer, Cory Hardricht, Romeo Miller, Eric D. Hill., Jr., Quincy Brown, Faizon Love and Macy Gray.

Credits: Scripted and directed by Jamal Hill. A Freestyle release on Netflix

Running time: 1:27