“ATL” is a classic example of a music video director making the leap to feature films and emphasizing style over substance.
Chris Robinson looks like he could have been onto something with his Atlanta-based coming-of-age story, as he approaches complex issues of race, class, money and identity.
One character is from the ghetto but pretends he isn’t in order to make the connections that will help get him into an Ivy League college. Another character has every imaginable privilege but pretends to be from the ’hood because she’s ashamed of her wealth. Then there’s the impressionable young man who’s frustrated working as a janitor and goes for the easy cash he can make with a local drug dealer — who makes fun of him and his brother for being light-skinned blacks.
All intriguing themes, especially in the mixed-up minds of hormonally charged teens, but Robinson only scratches the surface. Because really, “ATL” — like last year’s “Roll Bounce” — is about roller skating.
Seventeen-year-old Rashad (rapper Tip Harris, or “T.I.,” in his film debut) joins his buddies at the roller rink every Sunday night, where they zoom around counterclockwise, showing off their synchronized skills. The camera captures them — and all the other stylistically coordinated crews, like the Preps and the Warriors — from every possible angle, in stop motion, in slow motion, you name it.
All of them are talking trash and honing their moves in hopes of winning the top prize at — you guessed it — the big Skate Wars, which are just five weeks away.
Yes, it is fun to watch, and with the rap music thumping, it’s hard not to get drawn in by its energy. Robinson’s best-known work includes Alicia Keys’ “You Don’t Know My Name” and “Pass the Courvoisier” from Busta Rhymes featuring Diddy and Pharrell. Clearly he’s capable of creating a vibe.
And the rink itself is based on the real-life Jellybeans on Atlanta’s South Side, where producer Dallas Austin and TLC’s Tionne “T-Boz” Watkins, and musicians including OutKast, Jermaine Dupri and Little Jon, spent their Sundays. (“ATL” reportedly was inspired by Austin and Watkins’ own childhoods; OutKast’s Big Boi plays the neighborhood drug dealer, complete with shiny, oversized rims and snarling pit bulls.)
But too often Robinson’s film feels like one long music video, devoting giant chunks of time to the skating segments at the expense of developing potentially meaty elements in the script from Tina Gordon Chism (“Drumline”), based on a story by Antwone Fisher (yes, THAT Antwone Fisher).
Rashad and his friends are at a crossroads as they prepare to leave high school. He dreams of drawing comics but figures he’s stuck working with his younger brother Ant (Evan Ross, as in son-of-Diana) and Uncle George (Mykelti Williamson) in the family’s cleaning business, now that his parents have died.
His friend Esquire (Jackie Long) works at the country club, where he shmoozes with the wealthy folks including a CEO (Keith David) from whom he wrangles a college recommendation letter.
The other two pals are pretty much useless: Teddy (Jason Weaver), who’s 21 and still hasn’t graduated, and Brooklyn (Albert Daniels), who can’t even hold a job at a fast-food joint. The four of them have an easy, believable chemistry as they joke around at the roller rink, the public pool, the waffle house.
Inscrutable Rashad somehow becomes the target of vivacious ’hood princess New-New (Lauren London in her first film), who playfully struts around with her best friends Veda and Star (real-life twin sisters Kadijah and Malika).
But New-New isn’t exactly what she appears to be, which threatens not just her blossoming relationship with Rashad, but also her own future and that of several of their friends.
Don’t bother worrying too much about them, though. Everyone’s problems are solved just as suddenly as they arise, and everything wraps up neatly and abruptly by the end.
One character is shot in a convenience store parking lot, for example, and then bam! That same person is fine and rolling along on the right track in no time.