Slam (1998)

User Rating:

7.1/10   

Director:

Marc Levin

Writers:

Marc Levin (story) &
Richard Stratton (story) ...

Release Date:

7 October 1998 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Tagline:

Words make sense of a world that won't.

Plot:

Slam tells the story of Ray Joshua, an original, gifted young MC trapped in a war-zone housing project known as Dodge City...

Plot Keywords:

Gang | Prison | Racial Slur | Urban | Poetry

Awards:

3 wins & 3 nominations

Cast

Saul Williams	...	Ray Joshua
Sonja Sohn	...	Lauren Bell
Bonz Malone	...	Hopha
Lawrence Wilson	...	Big Mike
Beau Sia	...	Jimmy Huang
Andre Taylor	...	China
Momolu Stewart	...	Bay (Jail Rapper)
Ron Jones	...	Do Wop Cop
Reamer Shedrick	...	Do Wop Cop
Allan E. Lucas	...	Chief C.O.
Dominic Chianese Jr.	...	Officer Dom
Jerome Goldman	...	Jail Class Poet 'Why'
DJ Renegade	...	Party Poet 'Diminuendo in Blue'
Liza Jessie Peterson	...	Slam Poet 'Ice Cream'
Taylor Mali	...	Slam Poet 'Like'

MPAA:

Rated R for pervasive language, a sex scene and brief violence.

Runtime:

100 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

USA:R (certificate #35994) | Iceland:12 | Argentina:13 | Chile:14 | France:U | Norway:11 | South Korea:12 (video rating) (cut) | South Korea:15 (director's cut) | Spain:13 | UK:15

Filming Locations:

Washington, District of Columbia, USA

Company:

Off Line Entertainment Group

Quotes:

Ray Joshua: The wind is the moon's imagination wandering. It seeps through cracks, ripples the grass, explores the unknown. My love is my soul's imagination. How do I love you? Imagine.

Soundtrack:

Hologrammic Dub

Powerful!

Fantastic performances, a good story and interesting photography make Slam a very good movie; realism makes it a great one. I was in awe of the utter authenticity of the people, the situations, the energies in this film. I was suitably impressed by the emotions expressed and how effective it all was, for essentially a minimalist message (the odds are stacked against young black males in the inner cities) but even more impressed once I listened to the commentary on the DVD. I highly recommend you get your hands on the disc, and listen to the commentary after watching the film. Sure, it's a bit too self-congratulatory ("what a beautiful shot!" [it was only "nice"]) but the insight on the people involved--the writers, actors, poets... adds an incredible amount of depth to the experience.

To quickly generalize: if you appreciate Spike Lee's work, you'll probably like Slam. Although Spike might be a little upset that a white Jewish director brought this to film :-)