The Land

I imagine a lot of people will say that this movie is soaked in style and missing some substance but I think that is easily said when a film is as stylish as The Land.. I would say The Land was a cross between Dope and The Basketball Diaries, which is a huge compliment. Great acting, believable script, incredible cinematography and one of the best, most fitting soundtracks I've heard in a very long time. If you enjoyed Dope, Whiteboys, The Basketball Diaries, Kids or any other movie in this category, be sure to check out The Land.

The film is basically a rise and fall tale of 4 teenagers who want to become professional skateboarders. They do some fairly questionable things to get by, until one day, they hit the jackpot. After a fairly upbeat second act, things start to get a little serious for these kids.

It's a story we're all used to by now but rarely is it done with such class. Good work by everyone involved.

This movie does a great job of showing how the naivete of youth can have disastrous consequences for the kids and their extended families. The plot plays out in a way that causes the audience to share in the anxiety of the characters

This is the first (full-length) movie written and directed by Steven Caple Jr, a Clevelander from Tremont, where the movie (whose atmosphere sounds quite autobiographic) is based.

It's a good film, already vastly celebrated at 2016 Sundance Film Festival, dealing with the universal theme of coming of age without expectations, money, family or education. And Mr Caple's glance to mankind (as in any great artist) is a loving one. Even the title seems to express Author's feelings for his own roots, instead than a relation to the story itself.

Some actors are unknown but you will probably recognize Machine Gun Kelly, the unbelievable Erykah Badu and the great Kim Coates.

There isn't a lot of fun to be had in 'The Land'. It's a very bleak film with quite a depressing view on life. There's one character intended to be the comic relief, but even he comes across quite miserable in most scenes. It's a film that takes itself very seriously. At times this is its biggest strength, and at other times it's its biggest weakness.

'The Land' doesn't have a single likable character. The bad guys are bad and the good guys are bad (just slightly less so). We're meant to root for the four main kids, but you'd have to have some very bizarre morals to want to do that. This is the film's biggest downfall. It's fine if a film is grim because of its story, but when it's dreary purely because of its characters, that's a flaw.

It's a little slow getting going, but things do pick up as it goes along. The acting is actually quite impressive from most of the cast. Linda Emond, with limited screen time, really impressed me. She was the most captivating of all the cast and never made the mistake of overacting. Altogether though, there's not a whole lot to see here. I'd call it watchable, without having enough substance to make it anything more than that.

Four teenage boys commit to making it out of the inner city of their hometown Cleveland by pursuing their dreams of becoming professional skateboarders. Because of lack of funds they needed to get into tournaments they had to depend on illegal ways to obtain money. This landed them in an extremely sticky situation that will test their brotherhood and their morals. After watching The Land we can see that this stands apart from other coming of age movies and stories. It stands differently than all of the high school romance and high school drama stories who are all very similar and overused plot themes. These boys have real big, real world problems. Violence problems, poverty problems, family problems. None of the cheesy stuff. The movie is also relatable because of how the characters change throughout. A main example would be how Cisco changes in the movie. In a time where there is more violence than ever, The Land shows the even more harsh violence that is not shown on the news. The stuff that happens daily in big cities but usually goes unnoticed. This is showed in one scene when guys apart of a drug queenpin shoot drive by and shoot someone on their dirt bikes. There are also many examples that show change and many high schoolers go through lots of changes. One example is how cisco changes. He is all for doing the illegal things and he is the one who had the idea. But he was the first to realise that they are not cut up for the stuff. He tries to quit but no one else wants to. I recommend this movie for kids ages 13-19 because they can relate to this the most. These kids are coming of age the hard way like many kids do. This is a very entertaining and unique movie that is not like many others i have seen.