![]() ![]() Sofia, startled, starts lecturing him about condom use, as they cross Union Square. He acts like a stud, but he's not fooling anyone. As Sofia rages around their Bronx neighborhood far uptown, trying to raise money, Malcolm starts kissing the rich girl, her bed surrounded by a decor of dead bats and creepy skulls ("You price a skull by the number of the teeth," the girl informs Malcolm) and he confesses to Sofia later, "I fell in love today." You believe him. She is bored, mischievous, and wants to talk. There is a standout scene where he delivers marijuana to a rich white girl ( Zoe Lescaze), lolling about in her parents' apartment. Watch his face, watch his reactions he is always listening, always thinking. Ty Hickson, a young man born and raised in Harlem, has a beautiful humorous energy, and a visceral openness to the camera, rare in a non-professional actor, but rare with professionals as well. Malcolm sells dope to finance his work with Sofia. The fact that Sofia and Malcolm view the $500 as nearly impossible to acquire is eloquent. "Gimme the Loot" is really about class - a serious issue, obviously, as the gap between the haves and have-nots widens almost perceptibly. The thrill comes from the compulsively watchable dynamic between the two leads (non-professional actors, both of them), the excellent supporting cast (also non-professionals), and the fun use of multiple locations throughout the bustling metropolis. "Gimme the Loot" is thrilling, although there aren't any stereotypically "thrilling" sequences. The two are accustomed to having to act tough, but there are a couple of electrically tender moments where you get the sense that, really, they should just get it over with and start kissing immediately. Watching Malcolm and Sofia roam around the city, arguing, plotting, harassing each other, but with a clear undercurrent of fondness coursing beneath, is the main delight of the film. They make a great team.ĭirector Leon said he was inspired by comedies like "Uptown Saturday Night," as well as the Bob Hope/Bing Crosby road movies. They are engaged in a mild turf war with other graffiti artists, who spray over their designs. They spend their time tagging walls and roofs in their neighborhood, coming up with designs, and plotting to raise the $500 that will give them off-hours access to the Home Run Apple at Citi Field. Roughness, however, does not define them. We don't know much about the home lives of Sofia and Malcolm, although we can assume that things are pretty rough. The characters, sometimes in long-shot, stroll through a cityscape that throbs with a palpable pulse of overpopulation and noise. The locations are used offhandedly, although there are a couple of scenes that reach a kind of poetry (one involving a water tower). It is an anti-glamorous New York that still exists: grimy delis with cashiers hidden behind plate-glass, black-top parks with ferocious basketball games in progress, the languid crowded torpor of Union Square on a hot summer night. Filmed all over the city, it shows a New York that has been missing from American cinema for quite some time. ![]() And what a confident and entertaining first feature it is. "Bombing the Apple" is the lofty goal of Sofia ( Tashiana Washington) and Malcolm ( Ty Hickson), the two young Bronx graffiti artists in "Gimme the Loot," writer/director Adam Leon's first feature. If you could somehow get access to that Home Run Apple, and "bomb" it, your work would be broadcast to the masses and you'd be a legend! "Somebody's gonna bomb that Apple." The Apple in question is the Mets' Citi Field's Home Run Apple, which has never been "bombed" by graffiti in its entire history and therefore represents the Holy Grail to New York graffiti artists. ![]()
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