Kim Gentes

A backtrace of storylines brings you to the start of the movie. This is a flashback film that starts with the ending (sort of) and takes you through the lives of people that will converge to meet in the strange storyline. The streets of LA are the backdrop for this movie about class, culture, prejudice and crime. Like real life, the characters are shades of hero and lier, truth and criminal. The story is much easier to follow that the typical sliced up reverse chronological thrillers that we have seen of late, but it has substantially more to teach us than those death by rubic-cube-solving psycho-killer movies. The acting is excellent (led by Sandra Bullock, Don Cheadle, Art Chudabala, with strong support from Tony Danza and Matt Dillon), though the characters don't have time for much individual development, since it runs 4 or more concurrent plotlines. A dark tragedy with heroic episodes? Maybe. You will find yourself feeling a little conflicted and sad leaving this film, but it seems that what the director, Paul Jaggis intended. Don't go to this film thinking "big screen", or you will be slapped silly with the unconventional approach. This feels like an offbeat independent film meant to scourge the powers-that-be for the racial hatred that pervades urban America.