Anne B. Real

First of all, I should mention I'm 49 years old and white and don't care for rap music.

But this appeared to be a quality production, with important lessons, positive messages, good writing and good acting. Just don't get too attached to anyone because in this neighborhood, you can't be sure anyone will survive to the end.

Cynthia's father was a dedicated teacher at an aging New York City high school in a bad section of the city. When she was young, he gave her Anne Frank's famous diary to read.

Now Cynthia is a student at that high school. Her father is deceased and her family is on welfare. They include Cynthia, her mother, her grandmother, her brother Juan, her sister Janet, and Janet's baby. Cynthia's mother is Latina and doesn't look black. I'm not clear on her father's racial background but he had a Spanish-sounding name. Anyway, Cynthia looks black and thinks of herself as black.

Several teachers at the school, particularly Michael, believe that at least some of these kids can be reached, despite what the neighborhood is like. Cynthia is one of them, though she has had difficulty since her father's death. But reading about Anne Frank has inspired her and she now writes rap lyrics inspired by Anne. As "Anne B. Real", she raps in front of a mirror. In the same mirror she imagines people she knows criticizing her.

Meanwhile, Juan supposedly has had a job, but the only way he seems to make money is by selling lyrics to up-and-coming rapper Deuce. Deuce wants to impress those who can make him a star, so he claims the lyrics are his own. Of course, so does Juan--who, by the way, uses too much of his money to buy drugs, and gets into situations that could put him behind bars.

Cynthia's friends include Kitty, who looks very white but is more street in her speech than most of the movie's characters. She could be considered comic relief. There is also Jerome, who has been on his own since age 12, and he has to get by delivering drugs. Darius is a very European-looking Latino who seems to want a romantic relationship with Cynthia.

Deuce has a girlfriend who is quite pretty and thinks she is "all that". I didn't catch her name but she adds a lot.

The stories of Deuce and Cynthia are interesting, and both characters have a lot of determination, but Cynthia is the strongest character here. She needs to be strong, too, because she will be put through a lot (so will the audience), and JNyce is quite effective.

But despite this movie taking me out of my comfort zone, I think it was a worthwhile experience.

This is a pretty good movie. I borrowed this from my Aunt, and I wound up really liking it. I was skeptical at first, but I was drawn into the story line. I thought the story was really touching, and I liked that it was something different at the time. I definitely think being a teen and a minority it was appealing only to a certain demographic. As a former writer familiar with the publishing industry, I think the script read very strong, but it didn't come across that way compared to watching it on the screen. This propably worked a lot better for book or teaching segment in a college course. Overall, I thought this was an underrated movie. It's defiantly not among the worst. This good for an evening night when you need something to watch.

Take a bunch of amateur wanna-be actors and shoots them with Dad's camcorder.

Take the resulting "brilliant" footage and slap it together on the home computer and you get Anne B. Real.

Now don't get me wrong, I have nothing against people getting experience by making a feature-length project

I do have a problem, however, with hyping it as if it were a real movie when in fact it is a painful-to-watch home video that you would only sit still for if it were made by your family.

In other words, avoid at all costs.

I really enjoyed this film. Though the title is misleading, i can recognize what the title was trying to accomplish. The influence of Anne Frank's Diary has never been so eloquently shown. By applying the diary to the life of an inner-city young adult is to put the past into the future. Carlos Leon and Ja Nice Richardson did wonderful jobs and i am upset that she has been in few other films. She puts the watcher in the mind of Michelle Rodriguez from Girl Fight and Fast and the Furious.

Ja Nice's character is somewhat weak through out the whole film in my opinion and could have gained her strength much earlier in the film. Aside from that the film has a strong storyline and good basic message.

What i enjoyed the most in this film was all of the music. being a HUGE fan of underground hip-hop i EASILY recognized many of the songs. I also appreciated the fact that music from the West Coast in a New York based film. Kudos to the music director.

It would be nice if someone were to tell all those budding filmmakers that all it takes to make a film is to assemble a few amateur actors and a video camera.

This film looked like a home video! It was so poorly shot it gave me a headache and almost made me sea-sick.

As to the story, it was annoying as with the majority of those movie that try to appear "real" but only come across as being caricatural. It should be called Anne B. Unreal.

In my video store, the copies were up for sale right away because nobody wanted to watch it. What a surprise! Do yourselves a favor and pass on Anne B. Real