Michael's Movie Grade: B
A sincere and heartfelt tribute to Los Angles and young people.
One of the first things to strike me about this movie was just how much love the filmmakers for the subject matter. Director, Carlos López Estrada avoids giving us a superficial Hollywood-ized version of young people in L.A. and instead gives us the real deal. Much of this is achieved through letting the young people's voices be the ones we hear throughout the film. They play themselves and recite poetry that they themselves have written. These poems are often the highlight of this film. They are incredibly well written and it is easy to tell the people we hear from here are very talented and intelligent. This poems are also brutally honest about the world these young people are living in and there thoughts and feelings about it. This makes this a rare American movie where we get to hear the voice of young people in a completely unfiltered and Un-Hollywood-ized way, giving us a much more authentic and powerful portrait than so many other films that try to portray the same thing. These young people are all from different walks of life, races, sexualities and lifestyles. Yet a similar message rings through much of what they are saying, that they are human beings with both minds and emotions and that they simply want to have their voices heard. This may seem basic but hearing their voices makes you stop and listen. This movie is also helped by excellent cinematography by John Schmidt, who perfectly brings out the beauty of LA that can too often be overlooked.
There was a plotline involving two aspiring rappers that honestly felt kind of bland and cheesy. I personally wish the filmmakers could have spent less time on that plot. There are also quite a few scenes that try to connect all the little stories happening around LA. Unfortunately those scenes can feel quite a bit corny and cheesy and therefore out of place in this mostly honest film. However the sheer power of the scenes that work overcome the scenes that don't.
-Michael J. Ruhland
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