ATL (HD-DVD/DVD
Combo Format)
Picture: B/B-
Sound: B/B- Extras: C Film: C+
Chris Robinson has been making notable Music Videos in the
Hip Hop genre for years, but with a script in hand by Frontline writer Tina Gordon Chism based on a story by Antwone
Fisher, he rightly made his feature film debut with ATL. Set in the year of the
film’s release (2006), the story tells of a group of friends in the title
location who are dealing with life, some trouble, girls and their love of
skating. Immediately, it sounds like
Malcolm Lee’s underappreciated Roll
Bounce, but that was set in the later 1970s. How do the two compare.
Well, this is a competently acted, nicely cast film that
feels like today for the most part, but Robinson’s directing sadly flattens out
the cinematic canvas. There is no major
difference to the look and feel of the homes, public places and skating areas,
or other commercial areas. This works
visually against the narrative and the Music Video past of himself and his
Director Of Photography catches up with them and limits the possibilities of
the script. Dialogue is good and has
believability. As compared to Lee’s
film, which is a bit safer, more family friendly and formulaic, this film has
some surprises outside of the skating ring.
Then there is the skating moments.
This film does not have enough of them, and what is here
is badly edited and never has a sense of place or feel. Lee’s film is more cinematic in that the
skating ring is treated like another world, place, area, escape and place of
empowerment. Both films have good
skating, but it is limited in ATL by
its limited screen time and never being fully explored. There is also a sense of energy and joy in
Lee’s film ATL could have used to
bring it to the next level.
The casting of solid actors like Keith David, Mykelti
Williamson and Lonette McKee add to the character of the film, but as I
watched, there were just too many opportunities missed throughout. I can say the same at times about Roll Bounce, but it has a larger feel
to it and is ultimately the more successful film. However, ATL
still makes for very interesting viewing as it stands on its own and Robinson
should definitely try again, because his debut is better than the majority of
disasters fellow Music Video directors going into feature films have tortured
us with, because at least Robinson knows what a narrative is!
The 1080p 2.35 X 1 digital High Definition image is pretty
good, as shot in Super 35mm film by Karsten Gopinath (aka Crash), and is just
that much better than the standard DVD’s anamorphically enhanced image with
detail limits and a few flaws that simply seem to come from being on the
flipside of this format. Color is not
bad, from both Kodak and Fuji stocks,
but Roll Bounce being form the 1970s
is going to have the more lively color palette.
The Dolby Digital Plus 5.1 is also better on the HD-DVD side than the
standard DVD’s Dolby Digital 5.1, especially in handling the deep bass of all
the Hip Hop music. Extras include a
Music Video, original theatrical trailer, making of featurette and additional
scenes that are not bad. This is
interesting all around and when Roll
Bounce comes to Blu-ray, more than a few people will be making comparisons.
- Nicholas Sheffo
