skip-98756
I Really enjoyed this! Im 58 and this brings back memories from when i was 16 and in that kind of life...Its been so long ago ,it seems like another lifetime..when i see this contemporary drama ,i find it shocking and SAD that things are still so much the same for kids and the drug culture after 42 yrs...That lifestyle, where kids hand out, looking to get high, the way they acted in the movie, is so true to life..the Drug dealer, done by pablo was outstanding! the volatile,quiet one moment,menacing the next,the quality and intensity he brought to the role nailed it..i have know people who acted just like that ! I actually thought from the promo poster that the lead actor was Jon Bernthal ...i was shocked to find ot was Pablo, it was the shaved head that made the resemblence..I love seeing Eliza from the 100, an awesome series!! cant wait for that to return..anyway they rocked their roles, and the supporting actors got the stereotypical drug culture yoyths down pat..again it was sad to see that todays kids were so much like the kids of 40 yrs ago,its like that lifestyle is in a time bubble and seems forever the same..i would hope that todays youth were less inclined to that way of life,or had found ways to creatively express the intense energies of that age bracket in positive ways, and i Do believe that more young people Today are finding healthy and creative outlets than in past...this movie though was a reminder that it still exists
xacebop-09424
There were some aspects of this film that I thought were really interesting and showed glimpses of brilliance but in the end they were often unexplored. The character development itself was my biggest complaint. The main character's family struggle really just doesn't feel invested enough. The thin line between law and criminality, again, glimpses are shown but don't really emphasize but more lightly tread. The law enforcement pressure on their own, and later the circumstances surrounding the characters who are involved in crime was almost frustrating to watch because you are given a tease of how that could have been a major breakthrough, but to no avail.I will say that the setting, characters, and a few individual performances really kept me interested. The guy who played Wyatt ("pornstache") was sort of another level, and he really sold the performance. The main character seemed awkward in the beginning but that (to my surprise) is resolved later on.Overall I'd put this at around 6.5, nothing groundbreaking but some people with a niche for this subject will enjoy it.
lovettstough
I actually really liked this movie. I am a U.S. MARINE & the vet in this the drug dealer the cooker if this were a true story really if he ever had any honor through it all away when he started doing what he was doing in this. This movie does go to show what the few & far between good law enforcement officers have to do to try to get the job done even if it means sacrificing themselves & their family & friends. I agree with what the main character said & did in the end though. I read some of the other reviews & obviously they expect in a movie about this kind of stuff a lot more action & high energy but this movie was closer to reality than all those fast paced action & high energy movies about this same type of stuff.
James Kinney
While the lead actor, Eliza Taylor, and others do well at building the chemistry between each other, this is only half of the film; the half that takes on the seamy underbelly of the Street drug dealing world seems contrived and the film suffers from a poorly written script, made-for-t.v. acting, and direction that seems scattered and poorly put together. Yes, it might have been a great film, but the focus of what the director presents seems tired and condescending to the viewer. That is, some of the film feels like it wants to build down-to-earth, close relationships between characters who seem sincere. The drug sub-culture parts of the plot displays a lack of understanding of the drug sub-culture and lingo. While this might have been finessed by employing less talk and more affect, the director fails to dovetail the human aspect with the moral one, makes it difficult to identify fully with any one of the characters. The subject matter ends up a drawn-out garbled message that was the main underplot of the entire project; the battle between separating good and evil from the grey emotional places in-between.This may have been better accomplished with less dialogue. Dialogue that sound more like a t.v. crime show rather than the decent indie-style film that it spends more time with. The half half that resembles a television series totally decimated what the character building phase accomplished. There is no happy medium. One comes away from the film feeling like hostages on a very slow, predictable amusement park ride - too long, too boring, and not worth the viewer's effort. Wish the entire crew the best, and hope that next time the director focuses more on overall continuity than wandering around taking us on an obvious message that spends too much time pretending the script is adequate, rather than spending time editing.The initial idea was probably well-intentioned, but this subject matter, once bitten into, seems more than the professionals who made this can effectively chew. Overall very unsatisfying. Four stars only for efforts actor Eliza Taylor, who provided brief moments if engaging and captivating realism.