Review: ATL

Rated PG-13 | 105 mins

IMDB Info

Directed with simultaneous style and incoherency, somewhere in ATL is a very good movie. Each scene in the film works by itself, but director Christ Robinson fails to bring them together to create a product that flows. From ATL’s innovative opening mix-track of Ray Charles’ “Georgia On My Mind” and a contemporary hip-hop cut to its electric, colorful rollerblading montages, sketches of the movie work as ingenious blends of old-fashioned storytelling and modern-day urban culture. The picture even contains some rather poignant scenes featuring New-New (Lauren London), a teenage girl from a wealthy family who secretly sneaks off against her father’s wishes to watch the film’s focal rollerblading matches in the ghetto. However, despite the fact that the majority of ATL does exactly what it should, it looses its punch somewhere between its intersecting-subplot style execution and its choppy editing. There’s a lot to admire in screenwriter Tina Gordon Chism’s script, based on a story by the Antwone Fisher; the excellent performances by the young cast; and much of the film’s production design. Unfortunately, these elements don’t come together nearly as fluidly or effectively as they should have.