Do you have a video playback issues?
Please disable AdBlocker in your browser for our website.
Due to a high volume of active users and service overload, we had to decrease the quality of video streaming. Premium users remains with the highest video quality available. Sorry for the inconvinience it may cause. Donate to keep project running.
Brandon is a 15 year old whose dream is a pair of fresh Air Jordans and works hard to make that dream come true. After the titular shoes promptly snatched by a local hood, Brandon sets on a dangerous mission through Oakland to retrieve them.
Still, what Tipping masters perfectly in the film is the constant ebb and flow of humor, and darkness, that runs through the narrative that is inner city boyhood.
The motif of a faceless, imaginary spaceman following the boy around is overly precious, but what does work is Tipping's focus on sensitive boys hardening in reaction to their father figures (or lack thereof).
The characters have enough dimension to avoid appearing to be symbols of a social tragedy, and the movie's relative gentleness makes the harsher realities of Brandon's world all the more distressing.
A dangerous quest for a stolen pair of shoes becomes an odyssey through ravaged California minority neighborhoods where drugs are omnipresent and violence is never far away. It is a tale of lost innocence, absent fathers and rites of passage.
Tipping's admittedly artful style is relatively ambiguous, focusing mostly on cheap visceral thrills, to the point where it's impossible to glean what he thinks about the depths to which Brandon will go.
It's about manhood, growing up in the hood, and the inner struggles you don't see played out on the news... It's not a perfect movie by any means, but I'm interested to see what Tipping does next.
Tipping, who also co-wrote the polished script, captures this unique mix of adolescent anxiety, urban decay and societal friction in a remarkably confident fashion ...