ATL

Four school friends on the south side of Atlanta. They all meet in the same place every week: a roller rink called Cascade. Rashad cleans buildings with his uncle, draws, and watches his younger brother start running with the wrong people. At the same time he meets a girl from a wealthy family without knowing who she is. Chris Robinson directs, in his first feature. T.I. plays Rashad, with Lauren London, Evan Ross, Big Boi and Mykelti Williamson. Robinson had been a music video director and one of the people who built the visual language of the Atlanta hip hop scene. The film carries that into cinema. Its real subject is the rink. Skating culture in Atlanta, particularly for Black youth, had been a central gathering point since the eighties, and Cascade is a real place. The film documents that culture, and the skating was shot with actual crews. T.I. began acting with this, and the part is close to his own history; the story is not about a hip hop career but about the life before it. Who it is for: viewers curious about Black American youth films of the 2000s and hip hop culture. Who it is not for: the story is template, the romance built on class difference is weak, and the last section is rushed.