Illtown

After being completely blown away by "Laws of Gravity" and "New Jersey Drive" I had great expectations for this bigger-budget, bigger-talent movie. Unfortunately this effort fails to achieve what Gomez's earlier offerings did so successfully. I think the biggest problem with the film is the pacing. All of the heroin-induced deadpan dialogue just wears the momentum out of the story. The talent here is just wasted in a cloudy disembodied attempt at a realistic portrayal of the world of heroin in Miami. My advice, stick with Gomez's earlier films and hope for future success from this very talented director.

...artistic, cultural and intellectual oriented toward the liberation of the mind by emphasizing the critical and imaginative faculties of the "unconscious mind" and the attainment of a state different... the "sur-real", or "more than real". Drug dealing and dirty cops are confusing...the movie reflects it. It's no tour de force! It is a series of vignettes often presented out of sequence. George(aka Isaac Hayes) = racial undertones. Needless to say this movie is not about race. Or is it? Inner city youth dress, speak and display "Illtown" attitude(s). FINAL ANALYSIS: this production has the players, enablers, misguided youth and violence that is expected in the genre. The film is not likable because it is top heavy with editorial and special effects that are not needed to depict the morass of drug abuse. Just say NO!

Many people hate movies that skip over the happy endings, or fail to feature any likable characters, but I'm not like that, at all. If you are, you probably won't like this movie.

Most of the characters are unscrupulous, and in some cases, downright despicable. I love that in a movie. Hehe.

It kept my attention all the way through with lots of action, and the final shootout was awesome.

I love Lili Taylor in anything, and she's great here. Also worth noting are the performances of a couple of highly underrated actors....Paul Schulze and Adam Trese. Watching Tony Danza play a gay crimelord is a hoot.

Sure, it's downbeat, gritty, and dreary, but isn't that what gangsters and drug trafficking is all about? Love it!

Sporting an excellent cast and appealing stylistic elements, ILLTOWN visits the theme of what happens when people trapped in a life of crime they began as kids are drawn by the normal maturation process to middle-class values. Like much good storytelling, this film starts with vagueness and confusion but gradually gels into a coherent story. The problem is that it falls apart again in the last third, and we are never sure what really happened to the characters at the end. Still, the film is eminently watchable, and if you can handle the irresolution, I would recommend it for rental.

This film is very poorly directed and edited. I got the impression that the editor took all the pieces of the film and put them in a hat and then spliced them together in a random order. Flashbacks merge into present-tense without any rhyme or reason. Momentary images of characters pop up without justification. I watched this because I love the work of Lili Taylor who is forgettable but not offensive in this; not so for Michael Rappaport who appears to be using some of the drugs that he sells in the movie. There's an amazing last shot in the film where Rappaport is supposed to have hit a golf ball on a golf course. His gaze goes up and out to show that he's hit the ball `hundreds of yards' but it is obvious, even without freeze-framing, that the ball actually dribbles about 20 feet in front of him. The reason that I hated this movie so much is that it COULD have been good with it's fine cast and interesting script - I'll never watch a Gomez film again.