A well-made film by Mark Levin won several awards at once. This is the Grand Prix of the Sundance Festival, and the prize in Cannes for directorial debut. In fact, before us is an example not of some masterly possession of the plot material, but rather the correct proportion of individual psychologism and typological relevance. The story of a young African-American man living in an area where it is very difficult to stay, if not alive, then apart from the endless, then large, then small gang violence is indicative in both these contexts.
On the one hand, the director avoids catchy cliches of films about green areas. His hero is drawn into other people’s problems, but he is not an angel himself. However, a natural gift for rhythm and rhyme indicates a distinction between it and its surroundings. Being in prison, which is shown just as carefully (without the typical large-caliber naturalism or, on the contrary, parable aphorism), he retains his identity there, without being exchanged for the function of a simple chorus of the leader of the local black “clan”. And the movement from street hip-hop to cafe poetic slam looks very interesting example, if not spiritual, then personally artistic evolution.
On the other hand, it is impossible to do without some stretches, trying to talk about topics related to political correctness. It is the fate of an African-American not the first decade "mainstream" for the cinema of the United States. In the case of history, these are the inescapable horrors of slavery; in the case of modernity, they are a conversation about the absence of social elevators and the covertly repressive structure of American society. In this context, the main content of the hero - his creative giftedness - oddly enough seems a little superfluous. Why not make a film about a man who just realized that violence was unacceptable? Why put this idea in messianic garb, ascribing to the hero the status of the voice of a generation and the humiliated majority? It looks very pathetic and not too natural.
Nevertheless, the film stands out against those pictures that simply, hypernaturalistically depict “evil black streets” and quite angry “evil black prisons”. Poverty is different from poverty, which does not deprive a person of hope. This conclusion is humanistic, justified and truthful.
6 out of 10