Explicit Ills (2008)

User Rating:

5.9/10   

Director:

Mark Webber

Writer:

Mark Webber (writer)

Release Date:

6 March 2009 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Tagline:

One voice will change everything.

Plot:

A drama of four interconnecting stories revolving around love, drugs and poverty in Philadelphia. |

Plot Keywords:

Poverty | Philadelphia | Love | Convenience Store | Bong

Awards:

3 wins

US TV Schedule:

Fri. Nov. 13	1:00 PM	SHOW
Mon. Nov. 16	3:30 PM	SHOW

Cast

Rosario Dawson	...	Babo's Mom
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Francisco Burgos	...	Babo
Martin Cepeda	...	Demitri
Rebecca Comerford	...	Kelly
Jermaine Crawford	...	Tony
Namaiya Cunningham	...	Baby on bus
Paul Dano	...	Rocco
Ruth DeSantis	...	Protester
Tim Dowlin	...	Chris
Destini Edwards	...	The Girl
Joe Hansard	...	Bloody Towel Man
Naomie Harris	...	Jill
Zoe Lister Jones	...	Jen
Ross K. Kim-McManus	...	Heslin
Jacob Lavin	...	Indy Rock Guy
Anna Martemucci	...	Sarah
Shoha Parekh	...	Aisha
Peter Patrikios	...	Thug
Lou Taylor Pucci	...	Jacob
Ben Rekhi	...	Gulab
Ronald Robertson	...	Thrift Store Clerk
Rocco Rosanio	...	Will
J. Santiago	...	Bodega Clerk
Frankie Shaw	...	Michelle
Noah Simmons	...	Little boy
Eugene Smith	...	Customer
Rukiya Thomas	...	Maria
Tariq Trotter	...	Kaleef
Brian Anthony Wilson	...	Demetri's Dad

MPAA:

Rated R for language and some drug use.

Runtime:

USA:87 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Certification:

USA:R

Filming Locations:

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA

Company:

Mangusta Productions

Quietly powerful urban drama

Crumbling, hollowed-out buildings, trash-strewn alleyways and weed-infested empty lots provide the backdrop for "Explicit Ills," a low-keyed, understated account of a group of largely unrelated people struggling to make a go of things amidst poverty and urban decay in Philadelphia. Yet, despite the grimness of the setting, the movie offers a basis for renewal and hope through a cast of characters who don't exactly fit into the stereotypical slum-drama mold - and in the film's commitment to social justice through unity and action.

In terms of form, Mark Webber's film is more a series of vignettes than a conventionally structured narrative, an approach that actually works quite well given the slightly amateurish, rough-around-the-edges nature of the piece. Yet, despite limited financial resources, Webber has fashioned a stylish, sometimes even quite visionary work that clearly cares about its characters and the community to which they belong.

Those characters include a young couple caught up in the web of drug addiction; an aspiring actor who's struggling with depression; a seven-year-old chess player who gets picked on at school; a sweet-natured teenager who's trying hard to impress his girl; a pot-smoking mother who's having to counsel her son to stay away from the drug till he's older; and another mother (played by Rosario Dawson) who's desperate to get some much-needed medicine for her asthmatic child. The characters have little in common with one another except that they happen to live in the same geographical locale and they're all trying to do the best they can with what fate and, in some cases, their own choices and actions have led them to. The movie ends on a powerful note of optimism and reconciliation after a heartbreaking and gut-wrenching event befalls two of the main characters.

When all is said and done, Webber's first directorial effort is more a work of "promise" than a fully realized work of art in its own right. But if your taste runs more towards the experimental and the "hip" and less towards the stale conventions of commercial movie-making, then "Explicit Ills" might well be the movie for you.