Swing Lowe Sweet Chariote (premieres June 24th at Digiplex Solon Cinema 16)

[SWING LOWE SWEET CHARIOTE premieres Monday June 24 th at 7:00 pm at Digiplex Solon Cinema 16. Red carpet festivities begin at 6:30 pm.]

Review by Bob Ignizio

Chariote (Phillia Thomas) is a smart young black girl living on Cleveland's East Side. She's managed to overcome her rough early years with a good-for-nothing mom (Melissa Thorne) thanks to the love and care of her grandmother (Tammi Swails). Now she and her two best friends Lily (Chanel Lewis) and Shannon (Carla Macon) are about to graduate high school, with Chariote setting her sights on a law degree. But if Chariote gives in to the romantic advances of neighborhood drug dealer Ace (Hakeem Sharif), she may wind up needing a lawyer herself long before she has a chance to become one. Or maybe even worse.

Starting out not unlike a gender switched BOYZ IN THE HOOD set in Cleveland, at about the thirty minute mark SWING LOWE SWEET CHARIOTE begins to morph into something more along the lines of a gender switched BLACK CAESAR. Which actually isn't a bad idea for an urban crime drama, really. But Chariote feels like such a believable character, and the movie is so filled with authentic detail, that it in a way it's harder to buy when the movie shifts gears into urban action territory than if the film had started off with a more generic opening. Both Thomas and Sharif do good work in the lead roles, but they still can't sell us on the idea that Chariote would throw away a bright future for a guy she never seems to really like. It's actually more believable, given her smarts, when she starts to become the power behind the throne in Ace's drug business.

Up Tight! (now available on home video and streaming)

[UP TIGHT! is now available on DVD, Blu-Ray, and streaming via Netflix. Thanks to R.J. Justavick for bringing this film and its availability on Netflix to my attention.]

Review by Bob Ignizio

UP TIGHT! shows how the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. led some in the civil rights movement to abandon the path of nonviolence in favor of militancy. A group of young black radicals in Cleveland, Ohio called The Committee have a plan to steal guns for their cause. However, one of the group's older members, Tank (Julian Mayfield), is too drunk to participate as planned. Johnny (Max Julien), the group's defacto leader and Tank's best friend, is disgusted but decides to go ahead with the theft anyway. They get the guns, but not before Johnny exchanges shots with the night watchman. The watchman is mortally wounded, and in his hurry to escape Johnny leaves behind evidence that places him at the scene. In the aftermath The Committee decide to kick Tank out, setting the stage for betrayal and tragedy.

Fun Size

Review by Bob Ignizio

Having already portrayed two other cities in films this year (New York in THE AVENGERS and Detroit in ALEX CROSS), for Halloween Cleveland gets to dress up as itself in FUN SIZE. Aside from one or two self deprecating comments from its heroine early on, the old hometown actually comes off looking pretty good, too. Much in the way those “boudoir photography”places can make just about anyone look like a porn star with the right angles, lighting, and makeup, FUN SIZE uses slick cinematography and carefully chosen locations (some, to be fair, actually in Cleveland Heights and Lakewood) to make Cleveland look like a vibrant party town. And of course it really is, depending on how you look at it, since the fun spots the film visits on East 4th Street and Coventry Boulevard really do exist, and really are lively and fun. Call this the feature length antidote to that (admittedly funny) “Hastily Made Cleveland Tourism Video” from a few years back.