"Nineteen Summers" avoids any of the high gloss sheen that Hollywood tends to spray on their depictions of hard-hitting life in urban suburbia, and in the process delivers an uncompromising, no-holds-barred indie gem.
De'Andre -- played with some real savvy here by Emonjay Brown -- lives in South Los Angeles at the ongoing epicenter of police brutality (and every other form of social and economic inequity indigenous to urban American life). With a girlfriend and baby ratcheting up the stakes, his response is to hustle. De'Andre's mom is here, too -- she wants him to commit to a legit path free of every hustler's likely dead end. But temptation is a brutal force of nature, and a white guy with his own financial backing provides too much of it for De'Andre to pass up. As we watch "Nineteen Summers," it feels as if tragedy continually looms right around the corner. Sure enough, it comes striking down, and like it always does, alters the lives of those left to remain.
There are social messages embedded throughout "Nineteen Summers." Some arrive hand-delivered with a very real clarity of intent, while others shrewdly aren't always spelled out -- we're left instead to absorb their nuances and draw our own conclusions. "Nineteen Summers" is an ambitious film with themes the audience will recognize, but the execution here is powered by an awareness, and ultimately by a freshness of vision all its own.
De'Andre -- played with some real savvy here by Emonjay Brown -- lives in South Los Angeles at the ongoing epicenter of police brutality (and every other form of social and economic inequity indigenous to urban American life). With a girlfriend and baby ratcheting up the stakes, his response is to hustle. De'Andre's mom is here, too -- she wants him to commit to a legit path free of every hustler's likely dead end. But temptation is a brutal force of nature, and a white guy with his own financial backing provides too much of it for De'Andre to pass up. As we watch "Nineteen Summers," it feels as if tragedy continually looms right around the corner. Sure enough, it comes striking down, and like it always does, alters the lives of those left to remain.
There are social messages embedded throughout "Nineteen Summers." Some arrive hand-delivered with a very real clarity of intent, while others shrewdly aren't always spelled out -- we're left instead to absorb their nuances and draw our own conclusions. "Nineteen Summers" is an ambitious film with themes the audience will recognize, but the execution here is powered by an awareness, and ultimately by a freshness of vision all its own.