“ATL” is a very pleasant surprise about a group of four friends learning the value of family, friendship and being true to oneself in the “Dirty South.”
Rashad (rapper T.I. in his first feature film) and his three friends, Esquire (Jackie Long, “Lovewrecked,”) Teddy (Jason Weaver, “The Ladykillers”) and Brooklyn (Albert Daniels) are in the midst of their senior year and preparing for the next phase of their lives. Rashad lives with his younger brother Ant (Evan Ross Naess) and Uncle George (Mykelti Williamson, “Fatwa”) the boys’ guardian in the loosest sense of the term as he often seems more put off by having to deal with them than actually wanting to take care of them.
I was most impressed with the array of new actors and actresses who capably handle their roles as if they were longstanding film veterans. To his credit, about 10 minutes into the film, I completely forgot that Harris was a rapper. While he’s not the most expressive actor around, he makes an impressive debut.
Director Chris Robinson makes his directorial debut with “ATL,” and it’s not hard to see that this is his first outing.
His direction has an amateurish look to it, well suited for music videos with the dramatic close ups, quick cuts and infatuation with the female body, but there’s a playful quality to it as well such as his shot of firefighters responding to a fire and blasting their water hose at the camera that works perfectly for this kind of fun, laid-back style of film. I’m very interested in seeing what he can do with his next effort.
The four friends are honing their skills for the annual Skate Wars, the big annual competition at the local skating rink where all the cool kids go every Sunday. We get a glimpse of the half step routine/half dance number productions the various teams and it certainly looks more exciting than anything I’ve seen at a skating rink.
Screenwriter Tina Gordon Chism (“Drumline”) working off a story by Antwone Fisher, yes that Antwone Fisher, is very adept at crafting dialogue that sounds convincing coming from the mouths of high school seniors from the slang down to
Best of all, while the film does have a message, it doesn’t hammer you over the head with it and leaves enough room for audience interpretation of events.
Ant is tired of working for Uncle George’s cleaning service and wants a faster track to getting paid and falls under the influence of Marcus (Big Boi of rap group Outkast in his feature film debut) the local drug kingpin who acts like his minions best friend one moment only to viciously turn on them the next. Big Boi is amazingly charismatic and pulls the role off so easily that it’s not hard to see how Ant could be swayed with the promise of fast money and women, even if he can’t see the consequences for his actions despite Rashad’s warnings.
There’s a point in some movies where everything is flowing so perfectly that I wished they would take the old George Costanza route and leave on a high note instead of trying to go on a little too long as what usually ends up happening is the film loses a lot of momentum and the final act isn’t as strong as the rest of the movie.
“ATL” has the same issue resulting from a few last-minute plot twists, that while to the writers credit isn’t too predictable but aren’t essential to the story either.
And with such a big buildup to the event, it’s kind of disappointing that we don’t get to see even a few minutes of the Skate Wars competition. It’s comparable to watching “Bring it On” only with no national competition at the end, which made me wonder why it was such a major theme throughout the film if there wasn’t a big payoff.
Still, “ATL” is not about the competition, but the characters themselves and with well-developed characters and a lighthearted, well-meaning tone it’s definitely worth a visit.