Posted: 04/07/2006

ATL

(2006)

by Tony Liccardello

Grade: 2 out of 5

Last year a coming of age movie was released entitled “Roll Bounce”, that centered around a roller skating rink. As much as I’d like to say I liked that film since I did have a small part in the magic making process (I was an extra, and tried to convince the director to give me a supporting role, but he didn’t see how a curly haired Mediterranean white kid was a good fit. Those bastards), I can’t because the movie was terrible. So is this film, ‘ATL’, any better? I compare the two movies to being punched in the face with a boxing glove, and without one. Both aren’t that fun, but one really sucks.

The story focuses on a group of friends, five high school seniors. The story only develops three of these characters, and focuses mainly on Rashad (T.I) and his little brother Anton. They both live with their uncle since their parents died in a car accident. They all are anticipating graduation and what to do after. Esquire, who is the brains of the group, works at a white collar country club, and attends a private high school. He uses a relatives mailing address to attend the high school, since he lives out of the district. Teddy and Brooklyn are two-dimensional characters and really just provide one-liners here and there. They all spend their Sunday nights at one of the hottest spots in Atlanta, at Cascade, a roller-skating rink.

While the movie may have an interesting premise, it goes straight downhill shortly after the first 15 minutes. There is the cliché drug boss played by another rapper ‘Big Boi’, the story plot of I must escape the ghetto, plenty of big booty girls, you can fill in the rest. The biggest problem is that the story just fails to hold your interest. It is an ‘I’ve seen this before” feeling, one that stays there throughout the film. While Cascade definitely may be a future music video shoot location, the story that centers around it just isn’t that interesting. The journey that Rashad’s character goes through is to cliché ridden to really care. He’s a do-gooder, looking after his brother Anton who is a magnet for trouble. I’m sure you could guess what comes after that. Throw in the character New-New, Rashad’s love interest, who isn’t what she appears to be, and the story goes from being slightly messy, to just boring. The story fails at being a story.

Think of this as a really long music video, like the ones Michael Jackson used to make back in the day when he was still black, only not nearly as good. It is obviously apparent that this is Chris Robinson’s first feature film, because he has bastardized the use of slow-motion and crazy swooping camera moves that really drown the movie. Some of them are well done, but most of them are not. They leave you with that feeling, yeah that was sort of cool, but really serves no actual point to the film. The movie cuts to music so often, that it sometimes feels like a silent film with a rap track. Robinson directs like the poor poor poor man’s wannabe pretender of someone like Guy Ritchie. The movie does have a few positives. It does boast an excellent soundtrack. It is visually interesting. And although I agree wholeheartedly to rappers poisoning Hollywood, T.I. does do a good job in this role, especially considering it is his first film. While the role doesn’t ask for much, he easily outshines the rest of the cast. I don’t know if that is a good thing or bad thing, but T.I has a future in this business if he follows the Mos Def route and picks his roles wisely.

Tony Liccardello is a film critic in the Midwest.

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