Five Star (2014) Online

Following this filmmaker from his first debut Welcome to Pine Hill. Five Star is his second feature, and it feels more mature and consistent sharp and clear in both concept and execution. The camera work takes you to the point of no return, evaporating borders between realities of true documentary style and narrative told with the language of real life. Filmed with first time actors, Director takes an advantage of true life experiences which captured by his camera. The camera just dives in and makes the film look more real than scripted. I watched this film on a big screen at TriBeCa FF at the sold out event last year, and I left the theater with the sense of deep satisfaction from what I had saw. Loved the film, and I would recommend it to the audience.

It's beautifully shot and even more beautifully acted. Real life gang member Primo Grant gives a riveting performance as a version of himself. It's full of raw emotionality that's a rare sight on film. John Diaz plays a young student of Primo's whose father passed away under mysterious circumstances. Both men bring a nuance to their characters that ground them in the reality of the filmmaking and create portraits of real people struggling with one of our most common and modern dilemmas.

The film starts with maybe the most intense and emotional scene. Primo recalls the birth of his handicapped son and his being in jail at the time. His son has autism, but to Primo he's perfect. This immediately sets the stage and the tone for the rest of the film. Dark, sometimes humorous but always with a sub-textual menace, the film traverses the gang lifestyle in a completely new, and real way. This isn't scarface, it's much closer to The Wire. These are real people who have found themselves in these situations because of varying factors. It does not glamorize gang life nor does it hold moral judgment over it. What it does do is offer a contemplative reaction to the way our world works, and the worlds we don't really understand.

The filmmaker's voice is never lost in this blending of fiction and reality. Keith Miller's first film "Welcome to Pine Hill" has a similar approach to a very different subject. Miller's ability to bring out the reality of a person and their situation and arc it into a narrative that feels like a movie that the audience has been sucked into is astounding. While some might characterize both his films as "raw" they are not in the sense of a docu-drama, but in the sense that the cameras are free flowing and the characters represent fully developed and often troubled people. Make no mistake these "real life" stories are fiction and there is the clear hand of an auteur at work behind them.

The film opens with one of its most powerful scenes, with Primo telling us about the birth of his son and how he missed it because he was in prison. The film continues to show us characters who are carefully trying to find a path through violence and hope and family, and ends up showing all three. The performances are strong, although not all of the writing is, so the improvised scenes shine all the brighter against the moments of scripted dialogue. The cinematography is interesting, and there are some great moments of reality caught in Primo's life. There is a scene where Primo goes to a Bar Mitzvah, and it's very fish out of water, but what's more interesting to me is the scene just before that where he prepares by going to buy a suit. He's going to the Bar Mitzvah to earn a little extra money as a security guard, but he has to look good and he has to fit in. He doesn't say how much it costs or whether he needed to wear a suit, but instead of feeling like a plot hole, it just adds to our understanding of who he is. The movie is full of little moments like these where characters don't necessarily do what makes sense, however they do what is right to them. Overall very enjoyable!

This movie was terrible. Plain and simple. Yeah it had a plot, but there was no real build up, suspense, or sense of satisfaction once everything was figured out. It just followed the lives of these two dudes as they meander through every stereotypical activity you can think of when you think gang life. And Primo lives what has to be the WORST existence any gangbanger has ever had. Then everything that has anything to do with a story seems to be crammed in as an afterthought. Like "Oh yeah guys, we got this mystery to solve and um... 5 minutes left. GO!"

Still a better love story than Twilight though.

Horrible movie. No story line. Nothing happens. Do not waste your $. Waited and waited but nothing suspenseful happened. Very slow paced. Almost fell asleep several times. I didn't expect much from it but was sadly disappointed. Very low budget. Gang references were not relevant at all. Minimal violence. Trailer made it out like something was going to happen to make it worth watching. They want me to add more info for the review but i don't anything to say due to absolutely nothing happening in the movie worth referencing. Im not sure why i have to write ten lines to give a review. I wish someone would have posted how terrible this was.