Marcellus Cox's follow up to LIQUOR BANK is the story of a major league baseball prospect who spends the day with his new mentor.
This is a super film that hits a lot of the right notes and brings us a side of life that we don't usually see, young African American men just talking about a life that isn't crime related. It's a film that is beautifully acted and wonderfully told.
The majority of the film is the interaction between a young black man and his mentor. The young man, the Jamarcus Rose of the title, is living with his grandmother because there is no one left for him. Life has dealt him a bad hand and cast him adrift. He doesn't want to talk to his new mentor because he doesn't think it will help. Over the course of the film we watch as the two men connect and bond is forged. I was moved in part because of the interaction between the characters, but also because the discussion that is on screen is not one we see, pretty much at all, on screen be it in a short film or an inde feature (you can forget anything remotely Hollywood because they do not want to show what it's like being an African American and on the fringe.). Like in LIQUOR BANK Marcellus Cox opens the door to real life showing us interactions that other filmmakers would rush through or turn into false high drama if they even decided to show it at all. The discussions and interactions between surrogate father and son are pulled from life and we are better for it.
This is great filmmaking, from a great storyteller.
Recommended.
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