I've seen this movie described as vibrant .. I guess it was in a way. But I really don't know if that was a good thing for this film. I started watching this film knowing nothing about it. The kid on the bed did remind me of Spike Lee, and I thought to myself "yeah this is a Spike Lee kinda thing" but not something he'd do. I'm surprised to see it is a Spike Lee film.
It's too clean, too fairytale, too ... contrived.
That needs explaining. All the poor, rough kids stealing candy and beating
each other up in the street .. including the glue-heads and the gangsters ... they are all wearing shiny brand new clothes, they're clean shaved, their makeup is immaculate, teeths sparking white (what is that fixation about!).... All of them!!!
The paint on the railing is new .. all of it!, even the garbage and the dirty building frontage is immaculately clean ... it looks designed, not natural.
That's all I saw through the entire film. In fact the props, costumes, and sets we're so unnatural, that several times I found I had been distracted from the story ... I lost the plot so to speak ...
The filming was great ... beautiful shots ... nicely cut .... technically great. But everything got in the way of the story, so it failed in the single thing you make a movie to do.
It's too clean, too fairytale, too ... contrived.
That needs explaining. All the poor, rough kids stealing candy and beating
each other up in the street .. including the glue-heads and the gangsters ... they are all wearing shiny brand new clothes, they're clean shaved, their makeup is immaculate, teeths sparking white (what is that fixation about!).... All of them!!!
The paint on the railing is new .. all of it!, even the garbage and the dirty building frontage is immaculately clean ... it looks designed, not natural.
That's all I saw through the entire film. In fact the props, costumes, and sets we're so unnatural, that several times I found I had been distracted from the story ... I lost the plot so to speak ...
The filming was great ... beautiful shots ... nicely cut .... technically great. But everything got in the way of the story, so it failed in the single thing you make a movie to do.