Cracktown tries to follow the Crash formula here, mixing in four different stories that all loosely intertwine but other than one scene they really don’t come together.
Story one is the typical story about the transvestite prostitute whose idiot husband robs apartments so they can have enough crack for a week. Please, like we haven’t seen that story five million times. Wait…we haven’t? Oh. If that first sentence doesn’t seem like you’re kind of movie, then this isn’t your kind of movie. I also believe at this point it goes without saying that this movie is not for everybody. In fact, one of the comments on Amazon calls this the most disturbing movie ever made. Now that’s not true, cause they have made numerous faces of death movies and there are a couple other actual movies I’d put ahead of this one, but Cracktown definitely isn’t a roses movie. Where was I. Oh yeah, the transvestite prostitute. They get along great, she loves him, he loves her, except he’s got this gnawing voice in the back of his head that says she’s a waste of life and he wishes she would die. Which leads to a couple arguments between the two and by the end of the movie the tension between them is palpable.
Story two is the teenage gangster. He is a jackass, and yet you can’t help but feel sorry for him. See what happens when you develop characters Hollywood? He plays it as a hard, tough guy. But he shows emotion when looking at a picture of his brother who was just recently killed. His mother can’t take it, so she just sits on the couch crying, and he can’t handle it so he acts badder and tougher. These first two stories intertwine one night when the transvestite prostitute and her husband are walking home and the gang bangers come up from behind and use some choice language to talk about the he/she and that turns into a fight scene.
Story three is the one most people relate to. You’ve got a wife and husband with a young child who won’t stop crying. The mom is going batshit crazy over it, but she can’t leave because her husband works two jobs and she can’t leave the baby alone. Then you’ve also got the husband working two jobs trying to support the family but when he’s home the baby keeps interrupting things and making life more stressful which puts stress on the relationship. Neither of his jobs are the safest either. He works security at story 4’s apartment complex and is the night clerk at a local convenience store, which gets robbed twice in the span of about a week it seems. One time he gets shot at, the other, he’s doing the shooting.
Story four is the story that tests your asshole nerve. You’ve got a brother and sister who are little and littler their mom is rarely around, their step dad hits the brother. And, they are poor to the point of just above homelessness. This is parents fault, of course, and mainly the step dads. Who I believe at one time says the priorities are “Food, crack, and then rent.” I might have food and crack in the wrong order. Mom likes the crack too. Enough that she does it three inches in front of her daughters face. Did I mention they are poor. The first time you see them, the brother wakes up to a roach crawling on his face and he acts like it’s the most natural thing in the world. Willy is the name of the brother, and he’s the center of this story. His best friend is a druggie (Brandon Routh) who sits outside his apartment building. Willy is also interested in one of the hookers who works the corner. Don’t worry, her parents know she works the corner, her mom is her pimp. This girl is named Melody, and she gets one day off of work because she’s bleeding. Thanks for the parenting mom.
That’s getting to be a long paragraph so I need to start a new one. So Willy’s parents one day decide they need to go take care of some family business or something. They say they’ll be back in a few days but the feeling is that they are getting out of dodge and never coming back. Or at least not all of them are coming back. This leaves the two kids alone and they shortly thereafter find out that Melody has been stabbed and sent somewhere to get out of the hooker industry. Since they don’t have the money for two bus tickets, Willy decides to leave his sister some money and some food and run off to get the hooker he loves. If you can get through that entire scene without screaming “You cannot leave your sister alone” you’re a worse person that me. And I pity you.
All these stories are building and building and you’re getting pulled into one story then yanked away to another story and you get into that one and you get yanked to another one and it gets stressful to watch but the tension is building and you can tell because the music is getting louder. And boom, four scenes later, everything is wrapped up and the movie is over.
Life is Hot in Cracktown is presented in 1.78:1 Widescreen format and Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound.
It looks fine. There are some times when the camera goes out of focus; the last scene when they zoom in the face goes away. The camera wobbles from time to time but I’ve seen worse. Editing is interesting too. They like to cut from something happening to one person and then to the same thing happening to another person. BJ’s, swearing, sex whatever. It’s good.
None.
It’s got four good stories told well and intertwined just enough. It’s got a powerful climax and in the end, despite all the drugs and naughtiness it’s got a good message. It’s not Crash good, but it’s a good movie you probably won’t mind watching.
Lightning Media Presents Life is Hot In Cracktown. Directed by Buddy Giovinazzo. Starring Evan Ross, Kerry Washington and Victor Rasuk. Written by Buddy Giovinazzo. Running time: 99 minutes. Rated R. Released on DVD: August 25, 2009. Available at Amazon.com.
