Life Is Hot in Cracktown

Life is Hot in Cracktown (2009) is a movie based upon a collection of short stories written by the director Buddy Giovinazzo. The film follows four story lines: a man who works two jobs trying to support his family and move out of the inner city, a brother and sister who try to survive in a roach infested hotel, a pre-op transsexual who works the streets to make ends meet and a young hoodlum who lives an empty life with no future to look forward to. They are just some of the faceless people who try to make a life inside a poverty stricken ghetto. even though they have a bleak present, something inside of these people drives them to try and look for a way out of there lives and look for a brighter future.

I really enjoyed this movie. Most of the films I see about the inner city are full of cartoonish and stereotypical characters that you don;t care about. The people in this film are real as the person next door. I found a lot of the dialog and situations these people are faced with to be real and very authentic. Buddy Giovinazzo has come a long way since his first film (Combat ShocK) but he still retains the gritty realism and spirit of that film in his latest project. He seems to have a genuine feel for his characters and none of that pseudo-liberal guilt complex that similar films that come out of Hollywood have. No phony baloney middle class guilt trip here and I really appreciate that in a film like this one.

Highly recommended.

(2009) Life Is Hot In Cracktown DRAMA

Somewhat of a raw documentary drama style film based on the stories told through Buddy Giovinazzo's novel of the same name who also wrote and directed it. The film although not for everyone since anyone can see something like this on some documentary channel or another about pushers and low life's, but the thing is that the film does have an ending if not a satisfying one, but have to go through all the retro tape to go there which just 'states' the characters without viewers able to identify with any of them until at least after the first hour! There's also a realistic feel to the characters since it's centered on the poor side of town portraying a particular neighborhood unnoticed and often ignored by civilized residents and hard not to look. Style is similar to (1995) Kids and Bully of (2001)

I'm gonna have to eat some crow here, especially after complaining about the last film I reviewed, SHADOWHEART. Both it and this one – LIFE IS HOT IN CRACKTOWN – came to me via Amazon's Vine Program. And I was becoming rather tired of the careless films that tended to populate The Vine's DVD list. Well, Life Is Hot In Cracktown has reformed me ...somewhat. It isn't great. It isn't stupendous. But it is gritty, real, and put together in a way that made it extremely watchable.

All of these characters are well-rounded and exceptionally well acted. There will be someone that every watcher will be able to connect with. Whether it's the young boy looking after his younger sister as his mother and her boyfriend get high and leave them alone for days, or the pre-op transsexual Marybeth (Kerry Washington, THE LAST KING OF Scotland) and her emotionally labile boyfriend Benny, or Manny, the guy working two jobs trying to support his wife Concetta (Shannyn Sossaman, WRISTCUTTERS) and their colicky baby, or the gang-banger Romeo who's life on the street is turning him into a dangerous individual, there's someone here for everyone.

The interest comes in the fact that you watch most of these people make horrible decisions or do terrible things, yet you cannot look away or even condemn them. They are the best and worst of us all, and it shows a rugged side of humanity that most of us would rather not see ...except to realize that one of these people might have been you had you not had a few breaks. It's frightening and enlightening.

The best part of the film is toward the end as we watch each person forced to make a decision and wonder at what the outcome will be. It is a turning point in their lives and we are given front row seats to it. Amazing how it all came together.

Watching the special features, I have to disagree with Kerry Washington's comment about transsexuals never being shown on film in any meaningful way. The film TRANSAMERICA focused specifically on this subject and was a fantastic film. Just FYI, Kerry.

Anyway, this film is actually quite good, even though I found the title a bit unfortunate.

Well, let's see. where do i start? If you listen to the negative reviews one might think this is a bad film.........when in fact, it is a very good movie......the only people that I can think of that might not have liked it may be crack dealers. If anyone wants to know what it might be like to use, sell, or have association with crack even without one's desire to; they should see this film. Crack life truly is dangerous, frenetic, unhealthy, and it twists people's relationships with each other; and yes, there can be cruelty, and mindlessness; rarely is there any lasting kindness. The people in the story are, by the nature of their involvement egocentric and self-centered of course; all using addicts are. It is the nature of the beast.

Someone said the characters didn't show any humanity. I didn't get that at all. I thought the authors demonstrated quite ably how their humanity was being destroyed by their addictions and their environment.

Some others criticized the fact that only the white characters were redeemed. I wonder if they actually watched the film? or that all the crack dealers were black; all the crack dealers were NOT black actually. The actual ethnic make-up of the population of crack dealers, while sad, is irrelevant and anyone who focused on that missed the point. In actuality the most important fact about the make-up of crack dealers is that they were originally poor and came from terribly corrupted neighborhoods.

Some reviewers claimed it was unrealistic because the transsexuals were too pretty; well. They weren't all too pretty, if they watched the film. I have to wonder if some of the people who judge the realism of a film from their personal life experience really have the experience they think they do. There is a vast difference between what one imagines, what one reads, what one hears, other films people think are realistic because they want them to be and real life experience. So. Be careful with their critical advice when it is clear they are having an episode of fantasy about their real life. Someone else complained about casting.......i can't imagine how hard it must be to cast any film but i would like to offer that compared to say, the new version of Pelham 123 for instance, this film is brilliantly cast.

One thing I think bothers me more than anything with this particular venue, by the way, is the strong possibility that some of these more ridiculous negative reviews may come from people who may have some vested interest in bad mouthing a particular piece of work because they are the competition, a jilted lover, a disgruntled former employee, an un-hired employee, or the multitude of other bad reasons people say terrible things about good efforts; sadly, it is just a part of human nature. Human nature, at it's worst, as demonstrated by some of the characters in this film.........maybe some who had such personal problems with this film see themselves too closely paralleled with some of the characters.

Anyway, I thought it was quite realistic, possibly a little too sanitized but it really isn't necessary to overwhelm an audience with too much of the horror of violence in respect to the characters situations to get the messages of this film across.

The best thing to do is see it for yourselves and make up your own mind........please bear in mind; I have no vested interest involved in this review as I have never worked in "Hollywood" or any other related occupation.

A drama about living in the inner city, where crack and prostitution reign. Some say it is too dark, but it's real and dark is what this life is all about.

Waking up with cockroaches running across your face, and having nothing more than a cracker for breakfast, would make anyone despair.

The film features pre-op transsexual Marybeth (Kerry Washington) and her boyfriend Benny (Desmond Harrington), Manny (Victor Rasuk) who works two jobs to support his wife (Shannyn Sossamon) and baby, street kids Willy (Ridge Canipe) and Suzie (Ariel Winter) and gang member Romeo (Evan Ross). Among the other recognizable faces are Brandon Routh (Superman Returns), Illeana Douglas (Otis), Lara Flynn Boyle (Land of the Blind), Vondie Curtis-Hall (The Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call - New Orleans), Mark Webber (The Laramie Project), RZA (American Gangster), Carly Pope (Young People F*cking), Thomas Ian Nicholas (American Pie, Pie 2, Wedding) and Tony Plana (Slayer).

If you like poverty-porn, then you will find four good stories and lots of familiar actors in this film.