I'll definitely file this flick under "films I REALLY wanted to like, but couldn't." Non-linear narrative structures are great for implying stress and confusion, even ones that have no real outcome, but this movie falls apart in the last act of it's narrative in an attempt to wrap up it's hyper-kinetic pace that it wasn't comfortable running at in the first place. It relies heavily on lowest-common-denominator visual language to satisfy this odd and forced pace to set an easily digestible plot, but forgot whether to be a courtroom drama, street flick or suspense thriller.
I guess you could also say it was a matter of style over substance, bnt I would counter with, not all low-budget flicks have to be all flash and performance to sacrifice what would be a very under-told story, a story of family dynamics around poverty, a story of a scene so rotten, that no one who benefits from it has anything resembling clean hands. Yeah, you might have The Wire, but little else beyond that. Character arcs just kind of happen with no thought of motivations. Scenarios have no pretext for the plot, just a showcase of great talent canned within a scene. It also doesn't help that this movie seems to have languished in post-production hell for almost 9 years.
It definitely wasn't the star power, there's a serious amount of talent (indeed aforementioned show The Wire boosted Wood Harris' profile and Jamie Hector's career,) in this film, but the relegation to tell the story in incomplete vignettes gobbles up Obba Babtunde's character, N'Bush Wright's unfortunate fade away from the spotlight is all too prescient here, and Trick Trick kind of steals the spotlight (too bad this didn't go nowhere for him, but I guess Detroit's his home and he's content.)
Hack editing leaves much to be desired in the overall arc of the story, so we see a contrived movie that was probably nothing more than a demo reel for anyone involved that already had a career on the rise, whilst leaving everyone else. Which is also how this movie's plot kind of worked as well. Much ventured, hardly gained, this film deserved better and got shivved in the guts on the way to the bank.
I guess you could also say it was a matter of style over substance, bnt I would counter with, not all low-budget flicks have to be all flash and performance to sacrifice what would be a very under-told story, a story of family dynamics around poverty, a story of a scene so rotten, that no one who benefits from it has anything resembling clean hands. Yeah, you might have The Wire, but little else beyond that. Character arcs just kind of happen with no thought of motivations. Scenarios have no pretext for the plot, just a showcase of great talent canned within a scene. It also doesn't help that this movie seems to have languished in post-production hell for almost 9 years.
It definitely wasn't the star power, there's a serious amount of talent (indeed aforementioned show The Wire boosted Wood Harris' profile and Jamie Hector's career,) in this film, but the relegation to tell the story in incomplete vignettes gobbles up Obba Babtunde's character, N'Bush Wright's unfortunate fade away from the spotlight is all too prescient here, and Trick Trick kind of steals the spotlight (too bad this didn't go nowhere for him, but I guess Detroit's his home and he's content.)
Hack editing leaves much to be desired in the overall arc of the story, so we see a contrived movie that was probably nothing more than a demo reel for anyone involved that already had a career on the rise, whilst leaving everyone else. Which is also how this movie's plot kind of worked as well. Much ventured, hardly gained, this film deserved better and got shivved in the guts on the way to the bank.