'Life Is Hot in Cracktown' review

Kerry Washington (Credit: Lightning Entertainment)

The lives of various people, many addicted to or involved with drugs, intersect in the inner city. They include pre-op transsexual Marybeth (Kerry Washington) and her dim-witted boyfriend Benny (Desmond Harrington), noble Manny (Victor Rasuk) who works two jobs to support his wife (Shannyn Sossamon) and baby, angelic street kids Willy (Ridge Canipe) and Suzie (Ariel Winter) and callous gang member Romeo (Evan Ross). Among the other recognizable faces in an overly crowded cast are Brandon Routh, Illeana Douglas, Lara Flynn Boyle, Vondie Curtis-Hall, Mark Webber, RZA, Carly Pope, Thomas Ian Nicholas and Tony Plana.

The buzz: Writer-director Buddy Giovinazzo wrote the short story collection “Life is Hot in Cracktown” in 1992, adapted it into a screenplay and then spent over a decade trying to turn it into a movie. He says the result is something like “Robert Altman’s ‘Short Cuts’ on drugs.”

The verdict: Giovinazzo’s film is about as credible as a middle school production of “Death of a Salesman.” The unspectacular storylines plod along, dragged down by lackluster performances and sloppy direction. The few actors who rise above the material—notably Washington and Harrington, but to some degree Rasuk and Routh as well—aren’t able to save a convoluted narrative that forces itself off track every time it shifts gears to yet another character. To his credit, Giovinazzo avoids obvious nihilism and generally seems to respect his characters. But his grand intentions far exceed his abilities. A tighter focus—preferably on Marybeth and Benny with other characters used sparingly to provide context and color—might have immensely improved the outcome. Instead, all we get is a provocative title for a boring, messy movie. There’s nothing hot about an indie debacle that quietly disappears without a trace.

Did you know? Despite Washington’s early interest in the role of Marybeth, Giovinazzo was initially reluctant to cast a woman. He changed his mind after meeting with several real life transsexuals

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