Quality of Life

Quality of Life, as a true low-budget indie, is a remarkably polished film. Chronicling the lives of two Frisco graff writers (Vain and Heir) as their encounters with the law place strain on their friendship and ambitions, the movie takes a penetrating look at those involved in the underground graffiti movement, as well as their place in society.

While one character, Heir, considers straightening out his life by getting involved in advertising, bringing to light the difficulties involved in such a transition, his friend, Vain, unwilling to let go of the "bombing" lifestyle, heads into a tailspin, that eventually explodes in the film's powerful climax.

Despite the serious nature of the film, the movie has a lot of funny moments, which prevent it from being overbearing. The characters- artists at a crossroads- are complex and interesting, and a good balance, the more volatile Vain complementing the more level-headed Heir. Aesthetically, the cinematography, which mirrors the grittiness of the Frisco graff scene, is beautiful in its abrasiveness, and the soundtrack, featuring bay area emcees like Andre Nikatina and Top Ramen, helps set the mood. There's also some pretty ill fight scenes and the tags are top notch. I would definitely recommend this movie to anyone interested in hip hop culture.

This is a movie about losers. Two losers. If you have ever known someone who was determined to self-destruct and in doing so drag as many other people down with him or her, then you can relate to the movie. However, why would you even want to think about such a person in the first place. People who need help must meet you half way. You can do everything for them, hand it to them on a silver platter and they end up spitting it back in your face. The thing is, you don't even feel sorry for the characters just that you want to keep those kinds of people as far away from you as possible. You don't want to know people like this and you don't want to live in such an area. No sane person can have sympathy for people who deface public and private property and justify it by claiming they are an artist. Artists have a canvas and they don't spend their time working to make the world ugly around them. The ugly is inside of them, at least put it on something which can be framed so people can decide if they want to look at it or not. Spray painting is the worst thing you can do for a community. When people see Graffiti they don't think it is cool or hip, they think it's ugly and wonder what kind of criminal did this. As the movie stated the fine was up to $50k and 2 years in jail. That punishment barely scratches the surface to repay society of this blight.

The music soundtrack was poorly done. It lacked any sense of what purpose music has in a film. Instead of using a stack of rap records, they film maker should have hired a skilled film composer to help this film out. Many dramatic moments were lost and almost a panic they made the music louder.

This is by far the best non-documentary film I have seen about graffiti, in the same tradition as the also brilliant movie Bomb The System. What you can expect is a very slow-paced movie with great acting, great direction and great photography. I mean, just the image of a fame wall in sunset speaks volumes. As far as credibility goes, I can personally really relate to this movie.

Me and my crew were out last night, we bombed the train line from end to end, visiting every party along the way, racking liquor and tearing s**t up. This was the perfect movie for my hangover Sunday.

There should be more movies made like this.