Know Thy Enemy (2009)

Director:

Lee Cipolla

Writers:

Jeremy Mitchell (written by) &
Lee Cipolla (written by) ...

Release Date:

26 May 2009 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Music

Tagline:

Are you ready for fame?

Plot:

Nemesis is the hottest rapper in rap's hottest city; Miami, the 305. But he has a little secret...he's not really a rapper...

Plot Keywords:

Rap | Hip Hop | Nemesis | Feud | Fame

Cast

  (Cast overview, first billed only)

Sheaun McKinney	...	Nate Harris / Nemesis
Marlon Taylor	...	Razor Ric
Jeremy Mitchell	...	Stan
Bechir Sylvain	...	Jason
Susie Abromeit	...	Pearl
Andre L. Gainey	...	Raymond Harris
Tamara McGill	...	Michelle
Lyndon Burden	...	Pone
D.J. Nealy	...	Young Nate
Tim Mackey	...	Gunplay
Rob Goodman	...	Ben Greene
Khambrel Robinson	...	Young Razor
Kevin A. Walton	...	Byron (as Kevin Walton)
Jerome Tubbs	...	Dough Dough
Lela Elam	...	Schoolteacher

Also Known As:

Nemesis (USA) (working title)

MPAA:

Rated R for language and some sexual references.

Runtime:

USA:86 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.78 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital (Dolby 5.1)

Filming Locations:

Miami, Florida, USA

Company:

Future Films (III)

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: (At 56:40) You can clearly see that his t-shirt is backwards.

Soundtrack:

No Holding Back

A pleasant surprise

At first when I thought of watching this movie I had all of the negative doubts one would have about another "rapper movie". I thought that it would fall into the same clichéd traps so many large budget films tend to gravitate towards. What surprised me first was the story of the young boy who turns into the famous rapper and by "keeping it real" has to pretend to be a gangsta. .I felt that the duality was quite strong and felt quite real. That is paired with the record company creating a feud with Nate, the main character, and his longtime friend, Razor. The young actor, Sheaun McKinney, who plays Nate does a great job portraying Nate's inner turmoil while trying to keep up his street cred and retaliating against razor. Acting in this film, for the most part, is well directed and well played out with a couple of exceptions in the minor roles. This is to be expected in an independent production. The overall visual styling and editing were very good, but still showed traces of the work of an amateur. Certain edits seems a bit abrupt at times and others were a bit confusing as to what the intention was. Overall however the shots seemed well planned and very well lit.

My final verdict is 7 stars for a well put together film that kept me entertained and appealed to me visually. I will be sure to check out Lee Cipolla's work from here on in.

To give a one star review would be foolish and ignorant of the obvious hard work and talent this director has truly shown on only his second feature film.