Brooklyn Bound

You won't see many movies teaming with this much humanity, much less one that spends most of its time in the housing projects of East New York, Brooklyn. Filmmaker Rich Devaney isn't condescending or sentimental but even the most minor characters in his film are fleshed into real human beings. That's Devaney's first achievement in this movie. The second is that he tells the story of a conflicted criminal trafficking in some mean streets and he does it without ripping off Scorsese for one second. Devaney gets great performances from his cast, he tells a powerful story without showing off the superb technique he clearly has and he gives you memorable images without a huge art department framing them and lighting them and stuffing them into your skull. Brooklyn Bound is evidence of that rarest quality in a filmmaker- talent to spare, minus the ego. And the movie shines brighter for it.

This movie is overall a decent film. No big names, I only happened upon it cause Dean Winters is in it. The films main focus is on Sean, who is a drug dealer who sells drugs to take care of his mother and brother. The story doesn't focus a lot on plot, more on the lives of Sean and the people who are close to him, like his brother(whose trying to get involved in his brother's work), and Sean's best friend Rob (who owes money to gangster Dean Winters). The story has good character development, a few good fights, and a nice atmosphere. The problem comes in at the end. I won't go into specifics at the risk of ruining the film, but there were too many questions that needed answering. I still give this movie a solid 6/10, but it could have been a 7/10 if not for the ending.

Brooklyn Bound is an excellent movie. One should not mistake its decidedly unflashy tone for any shortcoming in technique. Its writer/director Rich Devaney knows what he is doing. No knock on The Man but it is incredibly refreshing to see a movie about a conflicted criminal that doesn't rip off Scorsese. Shot in East New York projects, pre-hipster Williamsburg dive bars, tenements and one luxury high rise that seems just as squalid, Brooklyn Bound teams with life own, full of vivid, human characters, humor and menace. You don't have to be a fan of Fresh or Superfly (though both are good movies) to enjoy this movie. It's real, it's compelling and I'll be thinking about it for a long time.

I'm a movie snob. And I'm really looking forward to whatever Mr. Devaney does next. He really knows how to tell a story with a camera. He gets great performances out of his mostly non-actor cast and he doesn't coopt one frame of his story to show of any of the superb filmmaking technique that he surely possesses. The events of the movie are tinged with a senselessness in the best sense, a film with a big heart that gets broken.

I saw this movie a late night, and had no big expectations to it, I should have had.

The story of the movie is co-written by one of the main actors in the movie, all more or less not-known. That does not however have to be a bad thing, since the story is well told, and does not hurry. The actors in the movie play very convincing and sincere.

After the end-credits rolled on my TV I was quite blown away, but also started asking questions to the last 10 minutes of the movie... I couldn't make the calculation to add up. After an hour or so, I realized, that is just the way it is supposed to end, that could be a reality everywhere.

I have two words for you: "See it!"

This film is one to stick with you for a long time. The brief, yet intense scenes, constantly engage the viewer. Causing an almost (not to sound juvenile) interactive experience. It was a film in which any turn was unexpected.In the end character development was the one that blew me out of the water.To see the depth of these characters, only enhanced by phenomenally cinematography,slowly developing and changing throughout the film. All in all a real down to earth, organic, non-forced film.