ATL
—1. Overview
—2. Cast and Crew
—3. Photo Pages
—4. Trailers, Clips, DVDs, Books, Soundtrack
—5. Posters (Current Films)
—6. Production Notes (pdf)
—7. Spiritual Connections
—8. Presentation Downloads
Talk about a movie trying to be all things to all people: the problem with ATL boils down to the fact that I’m not sure what kind of movie it wanted to be. The story by Antwone Fisher (yes, that Antwone Fisher) comes off as a “Roll Bounce in the Hood.� As is so often the case, a voice over is the first sign of lazy story-telling. It’s a slice of life character study filled with a host of characters–like people you know from the neighborhood. It is a rite of passage movie, an examination of manhood and what it means to be a man that also looks at the responsibility and obligations of family. In other words, in trying to do too much, it does too little.
T.I. (playing Rashad) carries the movie on his dour yet charismatic shoulders, a performance easily on par with 50 Cent (Get Rich or Die Tryin’). Rashad works part time, saving money in order to look out for his younger brother Ant (Evan Ross) after the death of their parents; raising him despite sharing a roof with their Uncle George (Mykelti Williamson). In their free time, they are a part of a skate crew, The Ones, while trying to figure out how to take the next step in their journey to manhood.
“Dreaming is the luxury of children and you should enjoy it.� Rashad’s Pop
ATL is about growing up and all of its inherent pitfalls. In the setting of Atlanta, pitfalls include falling in love and the lure of the streets and the fast money of the drug life. But mostly, the movie is about finding community and a place of belonging. Whether it be found in skate crews, clown posses, gangs, family, or even church, we all have a need to find community. We were created as relational beings, and despite the myth of independence and self-sufficiently, we need to connect with others.
When institutions like family or church fail to do what they were created for other, unexpected communities spring up in their place: gangs, skate crews, etc. Communities that make a sense of belonging a priority because they know that finding a place is the first step in figuring out who we are..
C.S. Lewis, author of The Chronicles of Narnia, once said that "we are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in the slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased." The pursuit of keeping it real is a laudable one; the problem lies in what we call real. For New New (Lauren London), real means ghetto.
Ghetto life is a reality -- a cauldron of pain, anger, poverty, and injustice. Our culture too often reflects the self-hatred that comes from living a nihilistic existence. It’s bad enough that the “real hip hop� brand of blackness is marketed to death to our youth, with the “bling-bling� mentality fomenting a sense of entitlement through our music and culture. ATL is directed by hip hop video director Chris Robinson, and another hip hop artist, Big Boi, stars alongside T.I. The pursuit of money, the trappings of wealth, and “making it� are themes that point to a greater identity problem.
“I can’t be a man for you. You have to figure out the best way to do that for yourself.� –Rashad
From “females to friends to funerals� Uncle George wants Rashad and Ant to be able to recognize what’s real so that they “don’t look back on life with a bunch of regrets.� And that’s where many of us find ourselves: examining our lives trying to figure out what is true and what is false. Like each member of The Ones, we’ve constructed a false self, where we are defined by what we do, by what we have, and by what people think about us. We believe this lie and try to fix it ourselves, essentially creating a self-salvation scheme as we try to re-create ourselves. “I am not�–a man, for example–but “I can be if�I have the right rims, the right car, the right kind of money, the right bling, the right girl, go to the right school, get the right job.
“Sometimes it’s not what you know, it’s who you know.� –John Garnett (Keith David)
For me, finding true self involves finding my identity in Christ. It means realizing what He’s done and made in me; my gifts and talents tied to Him and coming from Him.
ATL is often a wildly uneven movie; its tone veers between Friday and Menace II Society. But it has a nostalgic feel to it, along with an aimlessness about it, as it does a lot of surface exploration of many themes. Yes, you know these characters from around the way, but you like them. The movie pulses with warmth and heart, however, thus making it truly ghetto-fabulous.
— Overview
—2. Cast and Crew
—3. Photo Pages
—4. Trailers, Clips, DVDs, Books, Soundtrack
—5. Posters (Current Films)
—6. Production Notes (pdf)
—7. Spiritual Connections
—8. Presentation Downloads
Talk about a movie trying to be all things to all people: the problem with ATL boils down to the fact that I’m not sure what kind of movie it wanted to be. The story by Antwone Fisher (yes, that Antwone Fisher) comes off as a “Roll Bounce in the Hood.� As is so often the case, a voice over is the first sign of lazy story-telling. It’s a slice of life character study filled with a host of characters–like people you know from the neighborhood. It is a rite of passage movie, an examination of manhood and what it means to be a man that also looks at the responsibility and obligations of family. In other words, in trying to do too much, it does too little.T.I. (playing Rashad) carries the movie on his dour yet charismatic shoulders, a performance easily on par with 50 Cent (Get Rich or Die Tryin’). Rashad works part time, saving money in order to look out for his younger brother Ant (Evan Ross) after the death of their parents; raising him despite sharing a roof with their Uncle George (Mykelti Williamson). In their free time, they are a part of a skate crew, The Ones, while trying to figure out how to take the next step in their journey to manhood.
“Dreaming is the luxury of children and you should enjoy it.� Rashad’s Pop
ATL is about growing up and all of its inherent pitfalls. In the setting of Atlanta, pitfalls include falling in love and the lure of the streets and the fast money of the drug life. But mostly, the movie is about finding community and a place of belonging. Whether it be found in skate crews, clown posses, gangs, family, or even church, we all have a need to find community. We were created as relational beings, and despite the myth of independence and self-sufficiently, we need to connect with others.
When institutions like family or church fail to do what they were created for other, unexpected communities spring up in their place: gangs, skate crews, etc. Communities that make a sense of belonging a priority because they know that finding a place is the first step in figuring out who we are..
C.S. Lewis, author of The Chronicles of Narnia, once said that "we are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in the slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased." The pursuit of keeping it real is a laudable one; the problem lies in what we call real. For New New (Lauren London), real means ghetto.
Ghetto life is a reality -- a cauldron of pain, anger, poverty, and injustice. Our culture too often reflects the self-hatred that comes from living a nihilistic existence. It’s bad enough that the “real hip hop� brand of blackness is marketed to death to our youth, with the “bling-bling� mentality fomenting a sense of entitlement through our music and culture. ATL is directed by hip hop video director Chris Robinson, and another hip hop artist, Big Boi, stars alongside T.I. The pursuit of money, the trappings of wealth, and “making it� are themes that point to a greater identity problem.
“I can’t be a man for you. You have to figure out the best way to do that for yourself.� –Rashad
From “females to friends to funerals� Uncle George wants Rashad and Ant to be able to recognize what’s real so that they “don’t look back on life with a bunch of regrets.� And that’s where many of us find ourselves: examining our lives trying to figure out what is true and what is false. Like each member of The Ones, we’ve constructed a false self, where we are defined by what we do, by what we have, and by what people think about us. We believe this lie and try to fix it ourselves, essentially creating a self-salvation scheme as we try to re-create ourselves. “I am not�–a man, for example–but “I can be if�I have the right rims, the right car, the right kind of money, the right bling, the right girl, go to the right school, get the right job.
“Sometimes it’s not what you know, it’s who you know.� –John Garnett (Keith David)
For me, finding true self involves finding my identity in Christ. It means realizing what He’s done and made in me; my gifts and talents tied to Him and coming from Him.
ATL is often a wildly uneven movie; its tone veers between Friday and Menace II Society. But it has a nostalgic feel to it, along with an aimlessness about it, as it does a lot of surface exploration of many themes. Yes, you know these characters from around the way, but you like them. The movie pulses with warmth and heart, however, thus making it truly ghetto-fabulous.
— Overview
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