“Dreamin’ is a luxury of children.”
These were the words of wisdom once given to Rashad (Tip Harris) by his father before both he and Rashad’s mother died in a car accident. Rashad took his father’s advice to heart as he put his own dreams and aspirations behind him to look after his younger brother Anton “Ant” (Evan Ross Naess), in first-time director Chris Robinson’s “ATL.”
Written by Tina Gordon Chism, “ATL” is based on both a story by Antwone Fisher and the experiences of producer Dallas Austin and executive producer Tionne “T-Boz” Watkins in a poor area of Atlanta.
After the sudden loss of his parents, Rashad becomes the man of the house despite the fact that his and Ant’s Uncle George (Mykelti Williamson) moves into their house to help raise them. To save up money for his brother to have a chance at “getting out” someday, Rashad works with his uncle as a janitor after school.
Rashad has three dependable friends in Esquire (Jackie Long), Brooklyn (Albert Daniels) and Teddy (Jason Weaver). Esquire was accepted to an Ivy League school but needs a letter of recommendation to help him get grants, Brooklyn is appropriately a New York native finishing high school in Atlanta and Teddy is a 21-year-old high school dropout. The four of them spend their Sunday nights skating together at Cascade, the local skating rink, trying to put together routines to win an annual “skate war.”
Lauren London plays Rashad’s eventual love interest, New-New, who he only gets to know outside of school, mostly at Cascade. New-New begins to get Rashad to open up to her when he gives her a ride home after a party and later learns he is a talented sketch artist with a desire to become a comic strip artist.
Ant has different plans involving getting rich quicker than he would working as a janitor for his uncle and is attracted to the flashy style of a local drug dealer named Marcus (Antwan A. Patton of Outkast). Marcus quickly identifies Ant as easy prey and adds him to his many teenage recruits, eerily warning him that dealing drugs is a “grown man business.”
While “ATL” does not strive to uncover much new territory for films of the same genre, Robinson makes a shockingly strong feature length directorial debut. There are a few flaws including some particularly poor lines of dialogue (one that awkwardly gives a big piece of New-New’s secret away upon her first appearance) but the acting is strong enough to disguise it for the most part.
Having a background in directing music videos, Robinson put together a young cast that includes rap artists Tip Harris (aka T.I.) and Antwan A. Patton (aka Big Boi from Outkast). Both actors give performances that appear completely natural, potentially fooling audiences into thinking they are actors first and rap artists second.
The most appealing aspect of the film is its characters and how their unique struggles are portrayed in ways that are easy to relate to. Every character ends up having at least one redeeming quality, including Uncle George, who never wanted to help raise Rashad and Anton and regularly enforces a one-bowl rule on cereal.
“ATL” is a surprising display of talent from an inexperienced cast and director that could end up serving as a springboard to several long careers.
