illtown

Pretentious, inept, and pointlessly "arty," illtown is a tired old war-of-the-drug-dealers picture tarted up with allegorical character names (Dante, Gabriel, Cisco), Stupid Camera Tricks, bad pseudo-philosophical dialogue, and elliptical editing clearly intended to hide the story's flaws rather than gradually reveal its merits. A host of fine actors--Michael Rapaport (Mighty Aphrodite), Adam Trese (The Underneath) and Lili Taylor (seemingly every independent movie ever made) among them--are stranded in this wasteland with absolutely nothing to play; let's hear your reading of a line like "I went to Heaven. They kicked me out." (You guessed it, that's Gabriel talking.) illtown even manages to make Taylor seem boring, which is quite a feat. The one redeeming moment: Kevin Corrigan's hilarious (and oddly touching) anecdote about his ex-wife. It's a long, steep drop from the remarkable Laws of Gravity (Gomez's 1992 debut) to this fiasco. Not recommended. (M. D'Angelo)