Straight Outta Tompkins

Straight Outta Tompkins is truly a historic film by a young talented filmmaker in the model of Scorese and DeNiro. This is a must see. Rarely does a film come along and puts the audience on notice… Zephyr Benson sparkles on the screen as a writer, director and lead actor. A true cautionary tale that reminds us all about choices we must make in the journey of life. The Cast is spectacular, Aaron Costa- Ganis as Cruz, Cliff Bemis as the Headmaster, Jon Mccormick as Sam all give life changing performances. Filmed on a microscopic budget, the film production values rival those of multimillion dollar films. Sometimes lighting strikes and all the stars line up, this is that film. A MUST SEE!

I watched this completely unaware that the lead was also the writer/director/producer, having learned that info after definitely increased my appreciation for the film. It wasn't a perfect film, but it's obvious that there is a lot of potential in Zephyr Benson. His script wasn't perfect and his acting isn't exactly Oscar worthy, but it was the way the subject matter was captured that was really inspiring. He presented a common story of just how many of us can so quickly go from a life of immense potential and unlimited choices to a life of deep regret that's seemingly beyond redemption. All of which is usually resulting from a few small missteps at a very critical time in life, which here is in the later high school/mid to late teenage years.

While this doesn't come across as a masterpiece, this debut does definitely warrant some extra appreciation due to the fact that it was all created by such a young filmmaker on what I'm sure was a very constraining budget. It more than succeeded in entertaining and does have a clear underlying message woven within making it worth a look.

I thought this movie was great and extremely well produced especially considering it was written, directed and starred in my a kid who isn't old enough to yet be out of college. One needs to also take in consideration of how good this film is when it was produced with a very low budget in Hollywood terms. I also thought it had a great urban sound track. We should all go and support the young up and coming artists of today. This film should be shown annually to all high school students across America in hopes to keep them from this terrible fate.I think they would better identify with this culturally than they do to the current DARE programs that were/are in place.

Yo. I dug this movie. But you either get it or you don't. If you don't know city kids, or drugs, you might not get the underlining story. I feel like I really understood what the writer was trying to say. It's a story you won't usually find on the big screen. I used to sell dope, and could relate to the story and see genes spiral to the bottom. I seen it too many times. family and friends. it ain't perfect, but the flaws make it even better. There are small moments that turn this movie from a normal drug movie, into a special little flick. If you know drugs, if you know that lifestyle, go see this film. You'll laugh at a few inside jokes. overall it was on POINT. props, son.

Was trying to watch 'straight outta compton' and I saw this movie in the suggestions and was going to watch the first few mins and exit out of it. But! This movie is gripping and very intense, straight outta Tompkins is a beautifully crafted movie, I don't care about the 'camera effects' or anything like that, I'm more into the storyline and characters, which were outstanding, but they could have done without the horrible scene with the fake gun. I will have to say, this movie is not for all audiences, you can only connect to this movie if you used to/still do drugs or are going through issues with family or friends. You can either LOVE or HATE this movie.