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Slam (1998)

tomatometer

63

Average Rating: 7.2/10
Critic Reviews: 8
Fresh: 5 | Rotten: 3

No consensus yet.

audience

80

liked it
Average Rating: 3.9/5
User Ratings: 2,569

My Rating

Movie Info

Filmmaker Marc Levin, known for his documentaries exploring prison life, drug addiction, and street gangs, won the 1998 Sundance Film Festival grand jury prize when he made his feature dramatic directorial debut with this downbeat prison drama about a black poet jailed on minor drug charges. At "Dodge City," a Washington, D.C., housing project, streetwise Ray Joshua (Saul Williams), a marijuana dealer who writes poetry, sees his drug connection gunned down, winds up busted as a murder suspect,

R, 1 hr. 40 min.

Drama

Marc Levin

Mar 23, 1999

Trimark

Cast

All Critics (40) | Top Critics (16) | Fresh (13) | Rotten (8) | DVD (3)

Part gritty prison drama, part inner-city chronicle, the energetic Slam defies easy categorization, serving as a compelling plea for black males of how to survive in oppressive society. The film won the 1998 Sundance Jury Award for Best Drama.

December 1, 2006 Full Review Source: Variety | Comment
Variety
Top Critic IconTop Critic

A powder keg of a movie, exploding with emotional honesty and truth and the exuberant passion of raw young talent.

January 1, 2000 Full Review Source: TheMovieReport.com | Comment
TheMovieReport.com
More Critic Reviews

Audience Reviews for Slam

A brilliant masterpiece of independent black cimema. This was a film that had a strong cast(real-life poet Saul Williams and also Sonja Sohn of HBO's The Wire) with compelling subject matter complete with a killer soundtrack(featuring the sounds of the DC "go-go" and other artists)not to mention some of the most

September 10, 2007
rayman0071
Mister Caple

Super Reviewer

The fiction element of the film, instead of driving Levin to deeper truths, delivers him toward triteness and manipulation.

January 23, 2012
majikhandzz
Pete Skeris

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