Luv (2012)

"Follow Your Hero or Become your own man





PLOT

11 year old Woody(Michael Rainey, Jr) gets a crash course in what it means to be a man when he spends  the day with his ex convict Uncle Vincent (Common) he idolizes.


MY THOUGHTS

Luv is an coming of age urban drama set in baltimore where we meet Woody an very smart 11 year old, who lives with his grandmother (Lonetta McKee) and Uncle Vincent(Common) they have breakfast, Woody ask for a ride to school from Vincent, who he looks up too.

One their way to school Vincent and Woody talk about different things until they get on the subject about girls in which he lies to Vincent about how he gets a lot of girls and because of this lie Vincent decides to have Woody spend the day with him instead of going to school.

Vincent wants Woody to be a man, even a better man then he himself is since he was recently released from prison and is trying to become a real business man who wants to start his own business, hence why he is dressed like a million bucks as Woody told him.

First Vincent gets Woody a tailor made suit and then they are off to take care of business along the way of Vincent making himself a real business man they travel all over Baltimore meeting with  old friends Cofield (Charles S. Dutton) who lets Vincent know whats going on in the streets in reference about him. real business people a bank manager (Clark Johnson) about getting a loan for the restaurant that he wants to open, but that doesn't go so well.

After that meeting Vincent goes to see Arthur (Danny Glover) and they talk about the old days , but most importantly about where can he find his old street boss Fish(Dennis Haysbert) Arthur tells him and he reluctantly goes to meet with him about helping him get the money that he needs to start his restaurant business but nothing comes without a price since Fish agrees to give him the money he needs but that he has to do one final drug deal for him in order for him to get what he wants.

Luv plays similar to Training Day where Vincent teaches Woody about how the real world works, about what it is to be a man, etc. life lessons basically.

Common really shows that he is continually growning as an actor especially if you've seen him on AMC's Hell on Wheels and he really shows his range as tough as nails Vincent who wants a better life but like he tells Woody "I'm doing what I got to do" not all rappers are good at making the switch from music to movies but Common is in the class with Will Smith, LL Cool J now with his recent roles and with Luv hopefully Hollywood puts him in more Major Studio pictures.

The supporting cast is very good from Charles S. Dutton, who I believe has never giving a bad performance in any movie they man is just that good and even in the small part here he shows how good he is as the streetwise Cofield.

It was good seeing Danny Glover playing an original gangster Arthur who anybody who has older Uncle's or known some friends of their fathers that's who Arthur remind me of, I was kinda hoping for Glover to say his trademark line "I'm getting to old for this shit" but I guess that is played out now and would've been to much on the nose so actually good thing it was left not said.

Dennis Haysbert as Fish is the former street gangster turned gangster in a suit, who has his hand and eyes on everything in the city, and still is the man of the streets even if he isn't on the streets, Haysbert has always been a very good actor who should be a bigger star then what he is but he is Mr. Allstate now (Are You In Good Hands) so I guess he's doing alright.

For all The Wire fans out there I guess since that show anytime a movie is filmed in Baltimore you can't do a movie without somebody from that show showing up in it and Luv has Michael K. Williams(Omar) playing a Detective who is on Vincent's tale every step of the way.

Clark Johnson(Gus) makes a cameo appearance as the Bank Manager that Vincent goes to see, Anwan Glover(Slim Charles) plays a gangster who has it in for Vincent since he believe that years ago, Vincent killed his brother and the meeting between the two of them is a very tense and real life type of show down.

I was a little disappointed that Meagan Good who is billed pretty high in the credits has not even 5 minutes of screen time as she is the only other female of note other then Loretta McKee that's seen in the movie, It would've been good if she had a bigger part to play since she was supposed to be a love interest of Vincent and the scene between them seems very out of place with the rest of the movie.

Michael Rainey, Jr (Woody) in his first movie as far as I know does a great job as we're basically seeing what's going on threw his character eyes and this is his journey from boy to manhood in the span of 24 hours, the scenes between him and Common shows that they really enjoy working with each other, even though its always been said that child actors are tough to work with but nothing like that shows, at only 11 years old Rainey, Jr showcase alot of range that most actors wish that they could, hopefully this young man has a bright career ahead of him.

All in all Luv is a very good underrated film that should be seen by as many people as possible I believe that if it was shown on a bigger scale Michael Rainey, Jr. could've been nominated for an Oscar just like Quvenzhane Wallis since both played some what similar roles dealing with harsh realities, and tough on them father figures, so if you haven't seen this little film I highly recommend it.

CAST

Common-Vincent


Michael Rainey, Jr.- Woody


Dennis Haysbert-Fish


Danny Glover- Arthur


Charles S. Dutton- Cofield


Meagan Good- Beverly


Lonette Mckee-Grandma


Michael K. Williams- Det. Holloway





MY RATING
7/10

Perks of Being a Wallflower(2012)

"Let's Go Be Psychos Together"


PLOT

Charlie is a abnormal young man, who has a troubled past and uncertain future as he begins high school, until one day he meets two seniors who helps guide him onto a better path.


MY THOUGHTS

I've heard a lot about this movie from different people that have read the book by Stephen Chbosky and also that same the movie during its theatrical run, surprisingly it was all good things about it. So when I finally got the chance to check it out I did and was I not disappointed with anything in this movie, which is set during the early 90s so there are no cellphones, computers, facebook, twitter etc(something this generation is suffering from) The teens in this movie are from what seems a foreign time, house parties, school dances and other things that teens used to do are still at its height here. and after viewing I'm calling it the Say Anything of this generation


We meet Charlie(Logan Lerman) a freshman who is beginning high school, he has no friends or any real connection with people, he's very introverted, but very smart and is ridiculed by all the popular kids(understandably) but surprisingly by the other smart kids as well, he's English Teacher Mr. Anderson(Paul Rudd) takes a liking to him and sees something special in him, that Charlie doesn't.

Charlie finally strikes up the nerve to leave his comfort zone when he introduces himself to shop classmate senior Patrick (Ezra Miller) at a football game, who befriends him without question, which makes Charlie feel  good, after the game Patrick invites him along with his step sister Sam (Emma Watson) to a local hangout where everyone go after football games, Charlie realizes that he has a lot in common with these two especially when it comes to music.


Patrick and Sam takes Charlie to a house party where Charlie gets high for the first time by eating some weed brownies, during which time the other Seniors welcome him in to their core group, Sam finds out that Charlie lose his childhood friend to suicide which kinda explains Charlies introverted behavior, Charlie learns a secret about Patrick being gay and has a secret relationship with star football player Brad, but he doesn't tell anyone.


As the school year goes on Charlie, Sam, Patrick and the rest of The Wallflowers Mary Elizabeth (Mae Whitman), Alice (Erin Wilhelmi) and Bob (Adam Hagenbuch) go threw relationships, personal issues, life lessons, that will help them shape their futures....




One think I really enjoyed about this movie is that the teenagers in this movie are like real kids not the way teens are now who think they know everything, because everything is giving to them and they don't have to learn or experiences things, they make each other mixtapes, and actually talk instead of text or use social media to interact with each other, there is a running minor plot of trying to find the name of a song that no one knows the name of which I think is cool.


The young cast all give refreshingly performances, led by the 3 main leads

Logan Lerman-Charlie



He reminds me of John Cusack in teen drama classics like Say Anything, and Better Off Dead with how he brings this character to life with his sensitive nature.

Emma Watson- Sam


She shows that she can have a long career as she takes on more challenging roles like this with her wide range, and the sky is the limit for her with what I think is a award caliber performance in Perks of Being a Wallflower.


Ezra Miller- Patrick



Everything I said about Emma Watson I second with Ezra Miller, who shines as the the fun loving Patrick who has the task of keeping everything together even though his life probably is one step away from being where Charlie is if he wasn't the way he was, this character could've easily been very stereotypical but its not thanks to Ezra Miller who seems to hit all the right notes that makes it work and hopefully doesn't get typecast in only playing these kinda roles.



In closing I'm glad I got to see this gem, Teen dramas like this used to be a common thing but went away hopefully with the critical and public praise of Perks of Being a Wallflower we will see more of these movies made in the future.

If you like richly made, character dramas that just so happen to deal with teen issues as well as adult issues like this movie does, and if you don't mind seeing reenactments of The Rocky Horror Picture show along with very good performances, and a cool retro soundtrack then this is the movie for you.


Rent It, Buy It, Stream it if you must, but most importantly check it out.

MY RATING

9/10