Rollerboyz
Rashad and Anton have lived with their Uncle George since their parents died in a car crash or, rather, he has been living with them, since it was their parents’ house. Rashad is 17 years old and a high school senior who works part time to save money for his kid brother “to make it out of here” out of this poor black neighborhood in Atlanta. Anton, known as “Ant,” sees a faster path: standing on a corner selling drugs for a local dealer.
No, “ATL” is not a drug movie; no one goes on a harrowing journey into danger. It’s about growing up and working, falling in love, planning your future and the importance of friends. For Rashad (Tip Harris), the best day of the week is Sunday because that’s when he and three friends go to the Cascade, a roller rink where they show off intricate moves on the floor.
Rashad’s friends are Esquire (Jackie Long), Teddy (Jason Weaver) and Brooklyn (Albert Daniels). They’re solid; they’ll last forever. Esquire has top grades at his high school; he waits tables at an upscale country club where he meets black millionaire John Garnett (Keith David). He needs only a letter of recommendation to go along with his Ivy League scholarship application; Garnett is happy to give him one. And bring him over to his mansion on the other side of town.
That’s when …
But let me back up to New-New (Lauren London). Rashad meets her at the Cascade. They like each other; they spend time together; it looks like love. But there is something she doesn’t tell him although she almost does, before he interrupts her having just told him her nickname was given her by her mother when she was adopted by another family after her real mother died when she was 3 years old.
I’m not going to reveal her secret except to say that it threatens to sink their romance and their trust in each other. And for a while a crucial, beautifully handled while it looks like it may destroy Rashad’s friendship with Esquire.
What this plot outline does not describe is the warmth and heart of “ATL,” which is about good kids pretty much raising themselves. Uncle George is not a bad man; he has been a janitor long enough, at 41, to plead with his nephews to get themselves an education. But when he finds out Ant is selling drugs well, let’s just say his immediate reaction shows that Uncle George has some history: “We can always use some money in this house.” (Rashad is more disturbed than that.)
But even before that, the movie offers an unusually clear-eyed portrait of the 14-year old as drug dealer. Yes, he works for a guy with a big expensive car (the rumbles of the sound system are an early warning system). But Ant’s own job is to stand on a corner. Hour after hour. Lonely, cold, hungry, scared. Not making much money and then getting what he made stolen. The movie lacks the false sense of empowerment that sometimes seems to surround drugs in movies.
Besides being real in its other aspects, the picture has much music. Chris Robinson, the director, is a veteran of many music videos; two of his actors are rap artists: Tip Harris, who records as T.I. (and did a lot of the soundtrack), and Antwon Andre Patton, who records as Big Boi. Their music alone, plus the mix at the Cascade, makes for one heckuva soundtrack that drives this film, especially in the roller-skating scenes which are choreographed to make that rink look like a magical place. And yes again there is a Cascade in Atlanta and it’s as popular as it looks in this movie; I know because my wife is visiting relatives and they took her to the Cascade and she called me half an hour ago and was having a great time. Small world.
The screenplay is by Tina Gordon Chism (“Drumline”), from a story by Antwone Fisher yeah, that Antwone Fisher; I don’t suppose “ATL” is autobiographical in quite the same way as his 2002 film about growing up badder than bad under foster care with Denzel Washington as your shrink-father? But it reflects lives of focus and determination; Rashad and his friends may be young and sometimes foolish and they sure do like to party but they’re also smart (all except Brooklyn) and determined to survive. That’s why Rashad can’t understand it when… well you’ll find out if you see the movie.
What I liked most about “ATL” is its unforced affection for its characters. Rashad likes his friends named for basketball teams on which their dads played winning games against each others’ dads so do we. More than anything else in life he wants Esquire to stop selling drugs; what really bums him out about New-New isn’t that she strips at Butter’s but that she lies to him about it.
He knows Uncle George is no paragon but Mykelti Williamson has a strong scene where he defends his life from his point of view. Forty-one, no wife, pushing a broom, trying to hold a home together for two nephews he didn’t ask for give the brother a break. I sense that somewhere in this movie, if we know where to look, maybe in the support of Uncle George and the friendships involving Rashad and Esquire and New-New, there are clues as to how Antwone Fisher evolved from being a kid with such shaky prospects into becoming a screenwriter with such good ones.
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