Sucker Free City Series On Showtime?
- Thread starter SouthSanDago
- Start date
I WAS READING THE NEWSPAPER ABOUT TWO FRIDAYS AGO (THE S.F. CHRONICLES), AND THEY WERE TALKING ABOUT THE SUCKER FREE SHOW, AND HOW SHOWTIME PASSED ON THE SHOW. THE S.F. CHRONICLE WAS RIPPING THE SHOW BAD SAYING HOW THEY WERE GLAD SHOWTIME PASSED ON THE SHOW, AND HOW IT MADE FRISCO LOOK BAD. I SHOULDA POSTED THE ARTICLE CAUSE DUDE SEEMED LIKE A HATER...
LMAO war over bootleggin cd's
Sucker Free City
By Kirk Honeycutt
Bottom line: A dynamic, engrossing, multifaceted look at San Francisco street gangs by Spike Lee.
Screened Toronto International Film Festival
TORONTO -- Spike Lee gets uncomfortably close to the grass roots of gang culture in America in "Sucker Free City." Focusing on a diverse group of mostly young characters in three San Francisco districts, Lee, working from a rock-solid script from Alex Tse, portrays a volatile subculture that's easy to get sucked into but damn near impossible to quit.
Reverting from recent form, where Lee used overstatement and bombast to make his points, the subtle though tough-minded approach to an unnerving subject here makes this one of the best films in Lee's career. He shot the film for Showtime, but here's hoping that "Sucker Free City" receives more festival exposure and theatrical playdates.
The white Wade family, gentrified out of a once affordable home in the now trendy Mission District, must move to the neglected, mostly black community of Hunters Point. There they suffer daily confrontations with the vicious "V-Dub" gang, especially the taunts of hotheaded Leon (Malieek Straughter).
Nick Wade (Ben Crowley), 19, is anxious to move up in the corporate world but must please execs by arranging drug deals and supplement his meager salary with credit card fraud.
K-Luv (Anthony Mackie), a gangbanger with a more stable personality, tries to get Leon off the Wade family's back. He sees Nick, a computer-savvy guy, as someone who can help him in getting into the business of bootleg CDs.
Meanwhile, trouble is brewing between the black gang and the Grant Street Boys, a Chinatown gang, over control of this pirated music. Lincoln Ma (Ken Leung), who collects protection money for a triad crime boss, is playing a double game of jeopardy: He skims money off the top of his collections even as he conducts a clandestine affair with the boss' beloved daughter (T.V. Carpio).
The plot threads allow us to crisscross town to survey the current state of street gang culture in San Francisco. While judging no one, Lee and Tse paint a grim portrait of a world that refuses to change, as it pulls each new generation into a tragic vortex of crime and destroyed lives. They make no bones about the allure of this dangerous milieu or why kids look up to gangsters glorified by rap music and "respected" by people on the street.
Mackie's K-Luv is the closest thing to the film's conscience. A criminal and killer, he nevertheless tries to steer kids toward education and looks for low-risk crime. Crowley's Nick and Leung's Lincoln Ma both are searching desperately to improve their social condition but know no means other than crime.
Cinematographer Cesar R. Charlone shifts color schemes to fit the mood and style of the film's different worlds. Colors often are supersaturated, especially in Chinatown
other times color drains away, bathing, for example, high-rise offices in blue, gray and white.
Barry Alexander Brown's editing is crisp, as is Lee's direction within each scene. Some may wish that Lee had subtitled the V-Dub street lingo just as he does the Cantonese, but the point is always clear: In "Sucker Free City," no one knows it, but everyone is a sucker.
Sucker Free City
By Kirk Honeycutt
Bottom line: A dynamic, engrossing, multifaceted look at San Francisco street gangs by Spike Lee.
Screened Toronto International Film Festival
TORONTO -- Spike Lee gets uncomfortably close to the grass roots of gang culture in America in "Sucker Free City." Focusing on a diverse group of mostly young characters in three San Francisco districts, Lee, working from a rock-solid script from Alex Tse, portrays a volatile subculture that's easy to get sucked into but damn near impossible to quit.
Reverting from recent form, where Lee used overstatement and bombast to make his points, the subtle though tough-minded approach to an unnerving subject here makes this one of the best films in Lee's career. He shot the film for Showtime, but here's hoping that "Sucker Free City" receives more festival exposure and theatrical playdates.
The white Wade family, gentrified out of a once affordable home in the now trendy Mission District, must move to the neglected, mostly black community of Hunters Point. There they suffer daily confrontations with the vicious "V-Dub" gang, especially the taunts of hotheaded Leon (Malieek Straughter).
Nick Wade (Ben Crowley), 19, is anxious to move up in the corporate world but must please execs by arranging drug deals and supplement his meager salary with credit card fraud.
K-Luv (Anthony Mackie), a gangbanger with a more stable personality, tries to get Leon off the Wade family's back. He sees Nick, a computer-savvy guy, as someone who can help him in getting into the business of bootleg CDs.
Meanwhile, trouble is brewing between the black gang and the Grant Street Boys, a Chinatown gang, over control of this pirated music. Lincoln Ma (Ken Leung), who collects protection money for a triad crime boss, is playing a double game of jeopardy: He skims money off the top of his collections even as he conducts a clandestine affair with the boss' beloved daughter (T.V. Carpio).
The plot threads allow us to crisscross town to survey the current state of street gang culture in San Francisco. While judging no one, Lee and Tse paint a grim portrait of a world that refuses to change, as it pulls each new generation into a tragic vortex of crime and destroyed lives. They make no bones about the allure of this dangerous milieu or why kids look up to gangsters glorified by rap music and "respected" by people on the street.
Mackie's K-Luv is the closest thing to the film's conscience. A criminal and killer, he nevertheless tries to steer kids toward education and looks for low-risk crime. Crowley's Nick and Leung's Lincoln Ma both are searching desperately to improve their social condition but know no means other than crime.
Cinematographer Cesar R. Charlone shifts color schemes to fit the mood and style of the film's different worlds. Colors often are supersaturated, especially in Chinatown
other times color drains away, bathing, for example, high-rise offices in blue, gray and white.
Barry Alexander Brown's editing is crisp, as is Lee's direction within each scene. Some may wish that Lee had subtitled the V-Dub street lingo just as he does the Cantonese, but the point is always clear: In "Sucker Free City," no one knows it, but everyone is a sucker.
I heard that someone gaffled SPIKE LEE's camera and he got pissed cause they didnt even want to return the tape! They canceled the whole project, it was suppose to be a series on every part of the bay, including east bay, west bay, south bay, etc... I guess that means you will never see Sucker Free City on any channel.
i read it was supposed to be a series but Lee couldnt film more then the pilot.so i dont blame Showtime (if its true) for canceling.there showin the movie at film festivles tho.its gettin good feedback,they say its some of his best work ever.but i guess theres parts of the plot that dont get closure,i guess due to the fact that it was supposed to be a series.but i aint ever read about showtime passin on it ,there supposed to drop it in 2005....