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With its dead-of-summer Gotham locales and pseudo-racial class warfare, debut director Adam Leon’s “Gimme the Loot” strongly recalls Spike Lee’s “Do the Right Thing,” one of the greatest New York movies ever made.
Yet, for all its powerful evocation, the film never feels like it’s trying to recreate anything, or piggyback on trends, not even when its graffiti-writing side players get their Banksy on, donning masks and giving on-camera manifestos. A breeze of a film that runs a mere 79 minutes, “Gimme the Loot” is about graffiti, but that’s just the MacGuffin. What it really does is nurture the bond between two blossoming characters, who emerge more vivid than many individuals in movies twice the length.
Championed by Jonathan Demme, Leon begins his film with a vintage video, in which old-school writers preach about bombing the Home Run Apple at the Mets’ stadium, an act no spraycan-wielder has achieved in the 20 subsequent years. The Apple is the Holy Grail for young taggers Malcolm (Ty Hickson) and Sofia (Tashiana Washington), Brooklynites who struggle for status and respect, and spar with rival Queens writers who lend yet more vitality to the atmosphere. The duo’s two-day quest sends them scrambling for enough money to get them close to their target, a journey that boasts the effortless magic of a docudrama.
Nothing is forced in “Gimme the Loot”—not the jazzy music that summons up the city’s past, and certainly not the performances, which range from the utterly non-Hollywood (Meeko’s tattooed thug, Champion) to the beautifully revelatory (Washington’s hardened spitfire). In an uncommonly naturalistic manner, Leon lets his film unfold like a light caper with just the right hint of humor, filling his players’ mouths with dialogue that actually sounds like human, native discourse (no hipper-than-thou BS here).
“Gimme the Loot” impressed audiences at Cannes, and it scored big at the South by Southwest Film Festival, netting the Grand Jury Prize. It’s your rare untainted indie, and it still manages to please crowds, celebrate romance, be tough, be sensitive and even exhilarate.
Gimme the Loot
NR
Three-and-a-half reels out of four
Opens tomorrow at the Ritz at the Bourse
Recommended Rental
The Girl
TV-14
Available Tuesday
Disappointed by the abomination that was “Hitchcock”? Cozy up instead with the HBO film “The Girl,” which features Toby Jones as the master of suspense, and Sienna Miller as Tippi Hedren, one of many blondes at once nurtured and tortured by their brilliant maestro.
Charting the making of Hedren’s star vehicles “Marnie” and “The Birds,” the movie highlights the supposed obsession that led to onscreen triumph (and offscreen troubles) for both star and director.
Contact the South Philly Review at editor@southphillyreview.com.
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