[psycho d]

Life is Hot in Cracktown (2009). Be forewarned, this is a rugged movie. The first action scene will have all but the most stolid of individuals reeling, and some frantically grasping for the remote. For the rest, set back and brace yourself for a highly polished look at a flick whose premise asks what do the dregs of the neighborhood do when they are not out in the public being scummy.

Life is Hot in Cracktown is one of those intertwining stories where we are never sure whether or not our antiheroes are going to clash in its viciously debauched denouement. This is a horrifically bleak story that thankfully makes its characters almost too polished such that it does not wholeheartedly turn off its audience. What these stories do is force the viewer into seeing that these characters, abhorrent creatures of public squalor, are not inhuman monsters whose fuel is delivered by Satan himself. Even the rottenest of the cast is a monster by day, son and brother on the occasional night. The story does not offer much hope, but nor does it wallow in the misery of the 'hood. Instead it is offers an uncompromising slice of a life that most of us could not fathom.

The acting was phenomenal everywhere, child actors included. Evan Ross plays a discomforting gangbanger, a good looking guy whose fleeting smiles appear at all of the wrong moments. Illeana Douglas takes what should have been an impossible part and sneaks in some humanity where nothing but a black hole should exist. Desmond Harrington and Kerrie Washington pull off a miracle of an impossible relationship held together by an unfathomable glue that fillips a challenge to any and all takers. The rest of the cast are just as impressive, and without them this production would have likely been shelved in vat and left alone to rot.

Director Buddy Giovinazzo takes what should have been a repugnant premise and has fashioned a movie that is accessible despite it harrowing topic. His sense of balance is astounding, twisting us up inside by insisting that we care about characters we'd just assume hate, but then allowing just enough of life's little treasures thorough to give us the facade that these people have some little thread of hope for happiness. The photography was solid, but it was the enthralling editing that captures our attention and then leaves us wanting even more. The score was perfect for this flick, at times mercilessly manipulating our emotions, at other times hinting at what might come.

The end comes together in a spectacular fashion, again to the credit of the editing. Life is Hot in Cracktown is the cinematic version of passing by a horrible car wreck and being gifted the optical carnage of an aftermath that will be indelibly burnt into our emotional memories.
d