Don't do crack.
The message could also be, 'Don't move to NYC, anytime'. At least not if you are poor. It's a message a bit more timeless than don't do crack, and a message it wouldn't hurt to remind folks of even here in North Carolina.
The message could also be: buy a gun and be ready to use it. The movie shows a cast of characters willing to rape teenage prostitutes, hold hostage, and rape senior citizens, male ones, in a daily maneuver to get their welfare checks, and, when one tenant calls the police, not only do they not show up but the landlord kicks him out for making the call. It's inviting trouble apparently.
A third of the way through the movie finally someone fights back, a mumbling character who's the boyfriend of a transsexual being harassed. He's the good guy in the movie. It's good to know even a movie this depraved can still find room to put in a pro-gay theme. Robbery, murder, sexual harassment: You have to draw the line somewhere and apparently on those who won't march in favor of homosexuality is where.
A shopkeeper in the movie at what would amount to 'the arab store' (who is actually Hispanic, I think) fights back too, shooting a would be robber. It's this scene where we learn fighting back isn't good either, as it leads to ugly death. It's not even his store, he's just a worker apparently. The store clerk could not regret his decision more.
So the message seems to be don't anything. Don't feel anything. Ball up like a rollie-pollie on the floor and try to avoid being stepped on. Take no action in this world. Everything is bad. There are no good guys. Being neurotic, and being gay, is a small price to pay for there to be one less person out there being shot by a stupid guy. There was a book out once with the title, "The Pursuit of Loneliness". This movie is saying the opposite. We'd be better off alone. At least in Cracktown. It's probably up to you to determine the boundaries of 'Cracktown'.
Oh - and don't trust black guys. All the really-bad guys in this movie, getting away with everything, are black.
My favorite scene in the movie is when the transsexual goes to her friend Gabrielle's house, in tears, "My boyfriends been shot. They don't know if he's going to make it" unwisely adding "how are you". Gabrielle immediately launches into an explanation of how he can't be 'Gabrielle' anymore. His mother is going to take him back, if he ends his current ways. "I can't be poor" he says. So there are two heroines in this movie. 'Gabrielle' Gary now or something, says they can't be friends anymore and shuts the door on the crying transsexuals face! So white. So gay. How real can you get?
This is one of those ultra violent (and this particular one is dirty and desperate and ugly) movies we can gush about afterward saying how great and amazing (and artistic) and (sadly) how real? it is, because it is supposed to be an anti-violence film. And I suppose if we don't understand the action we're probably some kind of wimp. Apparently, the only way to curb violence is to show more and more of it. Anything less would be reactionary, or conservative, not to mention a lot less hip. I'm willing to bet the original title was intended to be 'Life is Hard in CrackTown' (certainly an adequate one-line review) but, 'too preachy'.
I was entertained but, while I didn't really like the movie a lot on a conscious level, I did enjoy myself watching the movie, I think. . . When I left the theater, as I was walking out (or as I am usually walking out) and that strange feeling I get? - after watching a film filled with splendor - I felt completely the opposite of that. On some kind of subliminal level this film brought those feelings close to the surface, but in an opposite way. The lives of those in Cracktown are so sad and desperate and the scenes so dirty and ugly, my own very sad life began to seem livable.
So, while you don't want to live in Cracktown, it's not so bad living a few blocks away.
The message could also be, 'Don't move to NYC, anytime'. At least not if you are poor. It's a message a bit more timeless than don't do crack, and a message it wouldn't hurt to remind folks of even here in North Carolina.
The message could also be: buy a gun and be ready to use it. The movie shows a cast of characters willing to rape teenage prostitutes, hold hostage, and rape senior citizens, male ones, in a daily maneuver to get their welfare checks, and, when one tenant calls the police, not only do they not show up but the landlord kicks him out for making the call. It's inviting trouble apparently.
A third of the way through the movie finally someone fights back, a mumbling character who's the boyfriend of a transsexual being harassed. He's the good guy in the movie. It's good to know even a movie this depraved can still find room to put in a pro-gay theme. Robbery, murder, sexual harassment: You have to draw the line somewhere and apparently on those who won't march in favor of homosexuality is where.
A shopkeeper in the movie at what would amount to 'the arab store' (who is actually Hispanic, I think) fights back too, shooting a would be robber. It's this scene where we learn fighting back isn't good either, as it leads to ugly death. It's not even his store, he's just a worker apparently. The store clerk could not regret his decision more.
So the message seems to be don't anything. Don't feel anything. Ball up like a rollie-pollie on the floor and try to avoid being stepped on. Take no action in this world. Everything is bad. There are no good guys. Being neurotic, and being gay, is a small price to pay for there to be one less person out there being shot by a stupid guy. There was a book out once with the title, "The Pursuit of Loneliness". This movie is saying the opposite. We'd be better off alone. At least in Cracktown. It's probably up to you to determine the boundaries of 'Cracktown'.
Oh - and don't trust black guys. All the really-bad guys in this movie, getting away with everything, are black.
My favorite scene in the movie is when the transsexual goes to her friend Gabrielle's house, in tears, "My boyfriends been shot. They don't know if he's going to make it" unwisely adding "how are you". Gabrielle immediately launches into an explanation of how he can't be 'Gabrielle' anymore. His mother is going to take him back, if he ends his current ways. "I can't be poor" he says. So there are two heroines in this movie. 'Gabrielle' Gary now or something, says they can't be friends anymore and shuts the door on the crying transsexuals face! So white. So gay. How real can you get?
This is one of those ultra violent (and this particular one is dirty and desperate and ugly) movies we can gush about afterward saying how great and amazing (and artistic) and (sadly) how real? it is, because it is supposed to be an anti-violence film. And I suppose if we don't understand the action we're probably some kind of wimp. Apparently, the only way to curb violence is to show more and more of it. Anything less would be reactionary, or conservative, not to mention a lot less hip. I'm willing to bet the original title was intended to be 'Life is Hard in CrackTown' (certainly an adequate one-line review) but, 'too preachy'.
I was entertained but, while I didn't really like the movie a lot on a conscious level, I did enjoy myself watching the movie, I think. . . When I left the theater, as I was walking out (or as I am usually walking out) and that strange feeling I get? - after watching a film filled with splendor - I felt completely the opposite of that. On some kind of subliminal level this film brought those feelings close to the surface, but in an opposite way. The lives of those in Cracktown are so sad and desperate and the scenes so dirty and ugly, my own very sad life began to seem livable.
So, while you don't want to live in Cracktown, it's not so bad living a few blocks away.