Gimme the Loot

Every so often we get a film made by young passionate filmmakers that offers us a fresh perspective on an overlooked aspect of society that speaks to everyone in an entertaining, powerful and mature way. Gimme The Loot is very close to being that film this year. Although it attempts for a realistic view, it's still very textured, capturing these few hot summer days in brilliant voyeuristic wides. While its rich in character, it does suffer on the story side. Although it has a simple setup of goal and problem, their journey to solving the problem feels meandering and unfocused, drifting away from their desires too often. However, the character work is brilliant, especially due to the great performances from Hickson and especially Washington, it does a great job of humanising these vandals. It's just a shame that it doesn't feel like it's paid off what it set up in the end.

7/10

--Review originally published at www.theframeloop.com--

Jam-packed with lofty art-house endeavours, CPH PIX Film Festival proves it has a soft-spot for feel good cinema with presentation of Adam Leon's impressive, Kickstarter funded debut, Gimme the Loot.

Presented by The Silence of the Lambs' director Jonathan Demme, the SXSW favourite is a platonic relationship comedy about a pair of aspiring, Bronx-based graffiti artists, Sofia (Tashiana Washingthon) and Malcolm (Ty Hickson). Discovering that a rival gang has trashed their turf, the pair hatch a plan to 'bomb the apple', AKA to tag the New York Mets' Home Run Apple at Citi Field stadium. It's a tough, nonsensical mission – the likes of which have been attempted in real life for the last twenty years, to no avail – but one that our teenage whippersnappers think they have the prowess to conquer. But first they need to raise $500 as a bribe for a guard at the ballpark.

And so sets off a picaresque pursuit for the dollar. Candidly shot across New York's Bronx and Manhattan neighborhoods (presumably without production permits), they hoist in a little help from their small-time gangster buddies for a series of heists and loots. Apparently anything sells in New York, so the savvy Sofia pawns off half empty spray cans, second-hand cell phones and used Nike sneaks while, a few blocks away, the scrappy Malcolm goes rogue with a pot dealers' weed and sells the stash to rich BoHo chick, Ginnie (Zoe Lescaze, looking much like a young Sissy Spacek). Invited in for a little tomfoolery, the inexperienced Malcolm is instantly besotted with her, but it won't stop him from swiping her extensive jewellery collection.

Allegedly taking influence from Raymond Abrashkin's iconic 1953 Coney Island classic Little Fugitive, writer-director Leon tells the featherweight story with tremendous zeal and a curiously observational approach, that is more akin to the French New Wave than the typical American indy. His New York is not of the resplendent Woody Allen persuasion, nor that of Scorsese's foggy urban sprawl. If anything, Leon presents the city like the warts-and-all melting pot that it really is, which is once again reflected in the diverse soundtrack's blend of R&B, experimental rock and original East Coast hip-hop.

While the graffiti surface story stinks of adolescent desperation, it is very much a red herring to the real story of oblivious teenage angst and love. Their first starring roles, newcomers Washington and Hickson have an exuberant chemistry together, which makes their covertly flirtatious banter and naturalistic prattling all the more charming, and the stagnated climax at the very least tolerable.

Gimme the Loot is somewhat of a rarity. Nonjudgemental of his protagonists, Leon's debut is a sweet natured gangster flick which neither glorifies thug life nor condemns it. It's slight, knowingly goofy filmmaking – the likes of which are so rare in modern, message-laden cinema - and proves the young débutant, his impressive cast and cinematographer Jonathan Miller as promising future talents.

--Review originally published at www.theframeloop.com--

The best thing about this flick is the real people. Almost all of these actors seemed like regular folks. The accents were 100% genuine. I especially liked how everyone was very opinionated about the Yankees vs. Mets thing.

I loved how the movie gave you the feeling of what it's like to be in NYC and go from one adventure to another.

The 2 leads were fantastic; interesting, funny, and easy to relate to. They stole the movie.

The only thing wrong with the movie was it's lack of ending. Plus, the introduction of romance seemed like an attempt to show some sort of resolution. It came off as cute but a little hackneyed.

Well made, well acted, keeps you interested then... it's over and you're like, "So are they dating? Are they gonna get into Shea stadium? Was the blonde chick cool or an a jerk?" etc

This is a surprisingly charming movie. You end up rooting for the characters even though there isn't too much to the story.

A Jewish kid from trendy Greenwich Village embarks on making a film that shows the gritty underbelly of the Bronx, assisted by his high school chum, a NYC tour guide. One of the film's producers suggests using 2 white actors "to increase marketability", but the filmmakers resist, enlisting 2 mostly unknown African-American talents as well as an ex-con with no acting experience, all the while shooting covertly in many locations because they didn't have a film permit.

If that sounds like a wacky plot, it's not. That's the true backstory of "Gimmie the Loot" which, as a film, is no less quirky than the odd circumstances that spawned it. Shot on a micro budget of $65,000, the cinematography and authentic feel put it squarely in league with the big boys, if not a cut above, due to the filmmakers' intimacy with the city. Some shots were done with zoom lenses at a great distance so that the actors could seamlessly blend with the urban reality. Thus by removing the Hollywood polish from the apple, we get a true taste of what lies under the surface of New York City.

The plot, while quite original, isn't the focus of the film, but I'll tell it to you anyway. In the 20 years since a gang of graffiti artists attempted unsuccessfully to spray paint the Shea Stadium apple (an enormous prop that pops up whenever the Mets hit a home run), nobody has succeeded. Thus, to graffiti artists, or at least to our 2 main characters Malcom & Sophia, this caper is the urban equivalent of stealing the Hope Diamond. The movie follows 3 days in the lives of these 2 teenagers as they cook up their half-baked plan and set it in motion.

But the movie itself is far more than this. It gives us one of the most entertaining & charming views of the 'hood, yes, with its moments of menace & violence, but mostly in a light-hearted, enchanting way. This is a story of innocence in a not-so-innocent world, and it succeeds brilliantly. For example, Meeko the "ex-con" I mentioned in the 1st paragraph may frighten you at first with his imposing stature, forceful speaking and many tattoos, but he soon becomes one of the most entertaining, childlike criminal misfits you've ever seen. Watch the DVD bonus feature which features Meeko on a public access show "All City Hour" alongside Sam Soghor (the "tour guide" I mentioned above) being their hilarious selves.

Yes, the film has some great comedy, but it's not a laugh riot with punchlines galore. Instead the humor is low key like in "Pulp Fiction" with strange, almost surreal banter between the actors during tense situations. I absolutely loved the scene with Meeko & lead actor Ty Hickson pulling off a heist and suddenly stopping to argue about whether stairs begin at floor 1 or floor 2.

So even though the film has frequent references to drug use, drug dealing, robbery, gang violence, and oh yeah the F word used in practically every sentence, "Gimmie the Loot" is very much a sort of urban fairytale, full of innocence and naïve idealism, all encompassed by the gritty streets of the Bronx.

This film is a fantastic experience for anyone who likes watching interesting characters, impressive urban scenery, and exotic cultures... even if those exotic cultures are in your own back yard. I feel comfortable mentioning "Gimmie the Loot" in the same breath as the foreign masterpieces "Bicycle Thieves" (1948), "Alice in the Cities" (1974), and "The Summer of Kikujiro" (1999).

Graffiti artists Malcolm and Sophia labor all night on a new mural, only to see it completely tagged and defaced the next day by rival gangs. Their newest "exhibition" entails sneaking into Mets ballpark and tag the home run sign. Oh, yeah, and they need $500. Needing proves far different from getting. Bleak comedy trails the rather amoral pair as they steal cans of spray paint, only to get robbed and hustled themselves. Great sense of place, especially for those who think New York is Sex And The City, or other such candy floss. Gimme The Loot is a refreshing dose of reality. Quite a fun show. Note: Might want to get subtitles. Bits of the dialogue hard to follow sometimes.