Loyalty & Respect (Hip Hop Drama)
Picture: C
Sound: C+ Extras: C Main Program: C
Very slowly, more narrative feature projects with
all-African American casts are surfacing, being shot on video and offering Hip
Hop stories in a like world. Quanie
Cash’s Loyalty & Respect (2005) tells us yet another variant of the
drug dealing scene and how flying high never lasts. This is the kind of project that brings up the debate as to
whether such projects perpetuate or simply point out a very violent urban
culture, but it is done with some deliberate intent to have a consistent
narrative.
Unfortunately, it stops short too often, making the usual
“I am telling you this, because that is the way it is” flaw. This means, as it does with any kind of
production, just telling anything without additional effort in the visual
department when shooting in any visual format is not sufficient in telling
things more deeply than a cell phone conversation. To his credit, it does not try to merely be a New York School of
Filmmaking rehash and shows us places and lives we rarely see. Unfortunately, everything else falls flat
and especially as compared to Craig Brewer’s Hustle & Flow the same
year (with the same kind of ampersand-split title) cannot compete with the well-rounded
indie everyone is talking about.
The letterboxed 1.78 X 1 image was shot on tape and has
some detail and digititis issues, suggesting this is a generation down it
should not be or that maybe there was some degradation during editing. The Dolby Digital 5.1 mix is too harsh and
adds unnecessary harshness to the high end, as well as muddying the music and
its bass richness too much. Extras
include outtakes and an audio commentary by the director that proves if he were
more ambitious and found some direction, toping this would not be a problem as
he takes seriously what he is doing.
- Nicholas Sheffo
