American Violet

My stomach started to tense about 1/3 into this movie, and never stopped. I was in the GRIP of this story and social situation which was happening in our country only 8 years ago!! Powerfully acted, produced, edited with a message for all ages. I think this film will help to expose some of the terrible crimes we have been perpetrating in this "democracy".

This film subtly reveals the passivity of ordinary citizens exposed to a tyrannical local government, who keep their heads down and don't make waves. The cost of taking a stand is life-threatening. There are real heroes who realize that it is better to fight and lose against injustice than to submit and be victimized. The movie has an unusual realism while totally engaging us at the same time. I recommend it to all thinking people who care about tolerance and justice.

I was amazed with this movie, it has such a touching story. It really captivated me.

The movie follows a young African American woman who is a single mother of 4 in a very harsh neighborhood. She gets accused and charged of dealing drugs even though she's innocent. She's an honest women with a clean record and there is a hint of racism in the air of the accusing lawyer. The movie follows the woman while she struggles to prove her innocence.

This movie was touching and really makes one think about the World we live in and all the judgment we have against the people we know too little about. I loved this movie and I will remember it for a long time. Also it had some very great acting talents, a must see.

It has nothing to do with the actors and the director, because the performances were dead on. I was very extremely disgusted with the racists and racist system that allowed this type of injustice to happen.

However, what I also found myself disgusted and distracted by, was the main character herself. I struggled with rallying behind a single mother who chose (that's right, chose) to have four children on a waitress' salary and 3 different baby daddies (Before anyone feels the need to point out that there are men out there not taking care of their responsibilities, that just means that there are two, or in this case, 4 guilty parties. It doesn't absolve her of any guilt). I also struggled with the fact that the victims in the movie were driven more by concern about the loss of their food stamps and other public support, rather than justice actually being served. I guess my general bottom line issue is that they managed to create a movie where I didn't particularly like or care what happened to a single character. On one hand, you have a pack of the nastiest type of racists, and on the other, you have a bunch of walking stereotypes that supply them with ammunition.

Based on a true events, American Violet tells the story of Dee Roberts, played by Nichole Beharie, a young black single mother living in the poor neighbourhood of a small town in Texas. Dee Roberts, whilst life has not been easy for her, lives a model life, working hard, providing for her daughters and going to church on Sundays. Then, one day Dee finds her life turned upside down when she is arrested for drug dealing. Although innocent of the charges against her Dee is railroaded by the legal system and told plead is faced with a choice, accept the plea bargain of guilty and serve a suspended sentence, or fight to prove her innocence and risk 18 years to life. A poor single black mother in a fundamentally racist state she is backed up against a wall.

There are a couple of subplots intertwined with the main story, which help to keep it moving smoothly along, they do not distract from the main plot line but neither do they enhance it. Nichole Beharie, is not only stunningly beautiful, but solidly convincing as the true life character Dee Roberts, proof that beautiful women can act and don't rely on looks alone to land roles. There's some good strong supporting roles, all round performances, and nowhere does the film get too carried away with itself that it becomes over the top. Occasionally powerful, for instance some of the scenes involving Dee's child's father and the "deposition scene" had me leaning forward out from my seat. I did feel however, not powerful enough and nothing was made of the tension which would have undoubtedly arisen between Dee and the establishment in such a small town.

Although the story is based on true events, centering around Dee Roberts there's room for a more profound thread in the fact that the US legal system is so intractably flawed and combined with a penitentiary system which makes money from incarcerating increased numbers of felons> The US now has 1% (2.6 million) of it's population in prison, substantially higher than any other country in the world and 96% of inmates never stand trial but are forced into accepting plea bargains simply because they neither have the knowledge or the money to fight. Prisons make money from prison labour and the majority of those incarcerated are of black or latino origin, begging the question, has the US penal system simply become a modern day slavery? The film itself does not address this aspect directly, rather it skirts around the edges and attacks the shadow of this institutional racism and corruption not with a sword but a pocket knife. And here lies the biggest problem this film faces, how do you tackle a subject so complex as institutional racism and fit it into a glossy hour and 45 minute Hollywood movie without alienating most of the people you want to pay money at the box office? it's not easy, director Tim Disney, fails to find a solution to that problem electing to go with a non confrontational glossy approach, making me feel that perhaps someone more used to tackling these difficult social issues should have directed American Violet and giving it the punch it so desperately needed. You're left feeling slightly disturbed as you know how very true these issues are, but sadly not disturbed enough. Still, it's worth watching even if only for the delightfully beautiful Miss Beharie.

6/10

After seeing this movie at an Atlanta, Georgia screening, it was like being sucker punched and having all the wind knocked out. And this is a docu-drama based on a real like event. I've seen all that mess and more, have a better understanding of how and why 92 year old Katheryn Johnston was murdered. Why I see the police all the time except when I call them for help (that's not why they are in my neighborhood). The truly false perception of how well the DA's, Judges and police are doing their jobs but what they do is no more than busy work, never accomplishing a thing. And jails are the only industry in America that is growing. When was the last time you went to the store to buy a prison? Stopped in a showroom to look at the latest model prison? I don't recall asking for new prisons or more prisons; they was the ideas of politicians and investors (so you know there's money involved somewhere). And the 2 Federal Judges that were convicted for taking bribed (paid $2.5 million) to lengthen sentence in juvenile cases. We need to talk about this or we'll all end up behind bars. And this is all allowed, by law, because of the wording in the 13th Amendment giving slavery and involuntary servitude a legal place in America.