I just saw this amazing film, Explicit Ills, with my brother and wanted to make sure everyone knew about it. While the narrative structure requires some patience, the payoff is huge--a really complex, beautiful look at gentrification and issues of health and wellness in urban environments (in this case, Philly). And as an added bonus, it's got one of my favorite feminist actors in it: Rosario Dawson. Here's the trailer:

While there were times when I felt like the two white hipster characters got dangerously close to stereotypes, I found the film refreshingly non-cliched otherwise. Mark Webber, the writer/director, writes:

It was my first screenplay, so it was a tremendous challenge with a whole lot of fear involved. Fear of sucking and fear of perfection. I knew what I wanted to write about. I wanted to write about love. I wanted to write about addiction. I wanted to write about poverty and I wanted to write about hope.

3 Comments

March 25, 2009 3:01 PM

[0+]  SecondBeach said:

Looks awesome. Is it limited release or will it be coming out widely?

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March 25, 2009 5:25 PM

[0+]  Punchbuggy Green said:

I saw Duquan in that preview for a second! I get excited when I see kids from The Wire in other things.

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March 27, 2009 3:19 AM

[0+]  becstar said:

Am I missing something about Rosario Dawson? Last time I checked we was in a number of ridiculously sexist movies.

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