This one would make Hubert Selby Jr. proud. Although it doesn't seem to have the budget of Last Exit To Brooklyn, it certainly has the balls. It starts out with a rape. I can't remember another movie that starts out with a rape except for High Plains Drifter, although this one is a bit more violent although not as intense as the one in Irreversible. In any case, smoking crack or doing drugs seems to be the running theme ala Crash or Babel, but the cinematography is more in the lines of the cable drama The Wire, which isn't putting it down since The Wire is a pretty good feakin' show. The characters are well acted but not really likable and at times not believable but that's okay because this is a story about crackheads so what is there to like or believe in? Some of the screen writing is a complete mess and at times it doesn't make sense, like why is the mother who in one scene cares so much about her children abandoning them in the next, and the entire bit about the gangbanger who is hired to kill someone but then is targeted by killers is totally confusing, but coming from probably one of the most well made low budget movies it's all okay. I watched it, flaws and all, from beginning to end, and it kept me on the edge of my seat, and I was impressed, so I give it an eight.
Review of Life Is Hot in Cracktown
