GIMME THE LOOT

US, 2012, 79 minutes, Colour.
Tashiana Washington, Ty Hickson, Zoe Lescaze.
Directed by Adam Leon.

This is a brief film, the kind of small-budget, somewhat experimental kind of film-making that appeals to the specialist American audience. It may have a certain fascination for overseas audiences.

The setting is New York City, vividly portrayed, the details of the streets, apartments, shops, overpasses… The central characters are a young man and a young woman who are seen at the opening of the film shoplifting from a supermarket and escaping with their loot. On the one hand, they seem to have an attitude in life that the world owes them a living. On the other hand, they have a certain code, despite the regular four-vocabulary, concerning personal relationships and respect. The two are friends, not romantically involved.

The film is strong on dialogue, especially for the two central characters, incessant repartee… There are some other characters, relations, thieving kids in the street, drug dealers, street artists. The central characters are also expert at spraying war graffiti but they are upstaged by rival group and spend the film planning the comeuppance.

The drug dealer does get involved with a young white woman – and later intends to steal from her but, when she confronts them after sunbathing in a water tower above the apartments, they back off.

What remains for the audience is a glimpse of this kind of lifestyle in New York City, the portrait of the two young people, a certain intrigue in listening to them and their conversation.