I'm shocked to hear all the glowing commentary about this film. It's unfortunate that i'm limited to a thousand words to describe how bad it truly is. The basic plot is a character named Raymond Joshua, a rapping drug dealer played by Saul Williams, gets arrested for drug possession, then bailed out by a fellow prisoner - SERIOUSLY - then must decide whether to go back to prison. For starters the quality of the film is poor, a good twenty minutes could be cut out removing these slow motion flashbacks that are just time killers. Yes it was low budget, but many other small films don't look this ridiculous. In particular the chase seen in which Joshua picks an arbitrary point to climb up a white picket fence, despite being chased by overweight 50 something detectives that randomly burst into song, literally.
The biggest problem with the movie is the unrealistic character of Joshua, amongst other problems. He is not a typical drug dealer or rapper despite whatever the poor black men have no chance message this film is going for. When asked if was guilty of the possession of the marijuana Joshua responds "I mean I don't know", yet throughout the film he breaks into poems/raps that clearly display his tremendous vocabulary, you aren't just born knowing these words. It's clear that he was well educated, yet not very educated in basic laws, or the principals of using your education to get a legal job.
While in prison, Joshua breaks up a inmate riot by yelling a poem. The poem is pretty entertaining, it goes on to blame whitey for everything and his inspiring words stop everyone from stabbing each other. He then meets a female poetry teacher who happens to see the riot stopping poem, a foolish plot device an indie film fan would never forgive in another situation, but hey THIS IS REAL. In the one poetry class Joshua goes to, which is the last one due to budget cuts of course, his instructor goes on a whiny diatribe about how good the people in the prison are. This despite the previous poem by an inmate being titled "I shot three mother" you can guess the next word "and I don't know why".
A very interesting and entertaining character named Hopha, a prisoner who goes around in a lab coat for some reason, then bails Joshua out. Joshua then goes and hooks up with the poetry instructor, and has a week to decide whether accept his guilt, or flee or something. The films climax is him performing a poem to a small club that goes wild afterward. Once again the bad editing is at work here as he rattles off 20 seconds of poem, then starts over, I'm fairly sure it wasn't meant to be that way they just didn't feel like doing another take. Then a member of the audience yells an expletive that clearly should have been deleted because it makes the whole scene look ridiculous.
I really worry about people being inspired by this film or wanting it shown in public schools, the latter a possible sign of the apocalypse. It seems a lot of commentary's from outside the U.S. like the film, I really hope this isn't the only vision of America you have. Film is not reality, the best it can do is present a situation that might have some truth in it, something this film does very little of. If you want a better film about prison injustice try Brubaker, it cuts to the heart of matters more and is of much better quality. I could go on about other errors in the film. A first time offender getting ten years for a small amount of weed. The screaming character Jimmy Huang who is billed high on the credits for yelling briefly, to his credit his scene is worth watching. The abundance of over and underacting. The intentional, yet not clever, cameo of Marion Berry. I could go on for hours but lets just say my rating for this film is ONE ONE ONE. . .ONE ONE ONE.
The biggest problem with the movie is the unrealistic character of Joshua, amongst other problems. He is not a typical drug dealer or rapper despite whatever the poor black men have no chance message this film is going for. When asked if was guilty of the possession of the marijuana Joshua responds "I mean I don't know", yet throughout the film he breaks into poems/raps that clearly display his tremendous vocabulary, you aren't just born knowing these words. It's clear that he was well educated, yet not very educated in basic laws, or the principals of using your education to get a legal job.
While in prison, Joshua breaks up a inmate riot by yelling a poem. The poem is pretty entertaining, it goes on to blame whitey for everything and his inspiring words stop everyone from stabbing each other. He then meets a female poetry teacher who happens to see the riot stopping poem, a foolish plot device an indie film fan would never forgive in another situation, but hey THIS IS REAL. In the one poetry class Joshua goes to, which is the last one due to budget cuts of course, his instructor goes on a whiny diatribe about how good the people in the prison are. This despite the previous poem by an inmate being titled "I shot three mother" you can guess the next word "and I don't know why".
A very interesting and entertaining character named Hopha, a prisoner who goes around in a lab coat for some reason, then bails Joshua out. Joshua then goes and hooks up with the poetry instructor, and has a week to decide whether accept his guilt, or flee or something. The films climax is him performing a poem to a small club that goes wild afterward. Once again the bad editing is at work here as he rattles off 20 seconds of poem, then starts over, I'm fairly sure it wasn't meant to be that way they just didn't feel like doing another take. Then a member of the audience yells an expletive that clearly should have been deleted because it makes the whole scene look ridiculous.
I really worry about people being inspired by this film or wanting it shown in public schools, the latter a possible sign of the apocalypse. It seems a lot of commentary's from outside the U.S. like the film, I really hope this isn't the only vision of America you have. Film is not reality, the best it can do is present a situation that might have some truth in it, something this film does very little of. If you want a better film about prison injustice try Brubaker, it cuts to the heart of matters more and is of much better quality. I could go on about other errors in the film. A first time offender getting ten years for a small amount of weed. The screaming character Jimmy Huang who is billed high on the credits for yelling briefly, to his credit his scene is worth watching. The abundance of over and underacting. The intentional, yet not clever, cameo of Marion Berry. I could go on for hours but lets just say my rating for this film is ONE ONE ONE. . .ONE ONE ONE.