96 Minutes

I was fortunate enough to catch this at SxSW a few weeks ago and it's continued to stick with me. I can see the obvious comparison to CRASH although it's a bit unfounded as this movie really didn't seem to be about race at all to me. It just felt like it was about four kids struggling to make their way. Four kids who were all searching for something. Sure their circumstances were different and so they were searching for different things, but what unified them was that they were all just looking to be accepted by their families or their peers. To me, that's a universal story and one that lots of people can relate to. Evan Ross and Brittany Snow gave really amazing performances - well beyond what we've seen of them previously and both stand out to me a real talents to watch. The movie isn't perfect and I'm sure some will find it to be on the nose, but that's only because so many people don't have the life experience to know that this is the way it goes. I've worked in a shelter for homeless youth for several years and the stories these kids tell me are not too dissimilar. I would encourage all of those who see the themes as stereotypical to get outside of their own box for 2 minutes and spend some time with those who will you give example after example of how the youth in this country still struggle with the same things as they did 10, 20, and 30 years ago.

There is no doubt that director Aimee Lagos has talent and she may go on to bigger things. Some moments of this film are exciting and others are moving. The actors, though largely unknown, give capable performances. Based on a true story, this is a film about how four lives come together in a dangerous carjacking which spirals out of control, even for the perpetrators. The time sequence jumps back and forth and while it's easy enough to follow, it gets irritating. It's also filled with thoroughly unpleasant people and drops the f-bomb repeatedly, and although it's probably an accurate portrayal of the big city, it's hard to care too much even for the innocent victims. Besides the constant flashbacks and flash-forwards, the worst part of this film seems determined to wallow in squalor. There are also a lot of early scenes which contribute little to the central story and clutter the film. The last half hour of the film is the best, when the film no longer has flashbacks and flash-forwards. I was disappointed even though there were moments that were well-done and compelling.

I think the main problem with this movie is how the characters weren't developed properly, I think they wasted time in footage that was useless for the movie and they left out many details that could've given us a better insight into each character. Also the movie left you with a feeling of inconclusiveness. I think the characters were weak, except Dre which was portrayed by Evan Ross, almost all the emotional charge of the movie was entirely on his shoulders. He carried the movie throughout the end, but still you get the feel that they could've done more with his character. Truth is, I couldn't bring myself to feel any empathy for the victims in the movie, and the only character that inspired me to feel anything (Dre) still wasn't enough to make me feel like this movie had real effort. All in all it's a good one time watch.

I don't normally write reviews, but I'm annoyed with films on IMDb rating as 50/50, that turn out to be worth watching. Other reviewers have complained about the flash back narrative being confusing, it's not - so make your own judgement about the reviewers in question. Also reviewers believe 'the story line is unrealistic' and if modern society was like this we're in trouble; well this is supposed to based around real events and we are in trouble, anyone who doesn't know that needs to open their eyes.

Yes the acting is a little wooden in places, but if the real life events took place as illustrated - it's a touching homage to those who have suffered. Respect to the film makers also, some of the more potentially dramatic and harrowing scenes have been skipped over, removing unnecessary sensationalism.

I saw this at sxsw and it's been hard for me to decide if I really liked this movie. It was shot very well and the director obviously knew what she was doing but the exposition in the writing ruins the story for me. Everything is just made too obvious and is too cliché. The actors were okay, but they didn't really help this problem. It could have been much better and I really liked the idea of the story, but I think that it was just too poorly written. There was one scene where there's a black kid walking home from school with his backpack on and is randomly stopped and basically beaten and searched by cops who are yelling at him and being bad cops and drive off when they don't find anything on him. Then a black lady in a house shakes her head and closes the blinds. I hate cops too, but they don't actually do stuff like that in the middle of the day. Not since like the 1960's anyway. It's just bad writing and way too expositional and it really takes you out of the story and to me ruined it. It's like the writer wouldn't let you think for yourself about the movie, everything needs to be explained to the audience in very simple terms and I don't like that. But I think a lot of people will like this movie.