The film spans one day in the life of Anjelica Soto, aka “Rascal” (played by Los Angeles native Jessica Romero), a 15-year-old Latino gang leader in Watts, as she struggles to survive. Surrounded by escalating violence and racial tensions, Rascal realizes her days in the gang are numbered. Encouraged by her English teacher (Danny Glover) to apply for a writing program in Iowa, Rascal hopes to use the material from her life to write her way out of Watts. The forces around Rascal thrust her into a deadly cycle of violence that seems almost impossible to escape. To leave, she will have to make the dangerous decision to renounce her loyalty to the gang.
Découvrez comment le groupe de hip-hop alternatif des Good Lifers a réussi à détourner l'emprise des gangs de Los Angels en créant une véritable communauté artistique.
Francesca "Frankie" Sutton is a Los Angeles bank teller who witnesses a robbery. Shortly after the incident, the bank fires Frankie after the police uncover a connection between her and Darnell, one of the three robbers; despite the fact that Frankie knew nothing of the robbery Darnell had planned. Later, Frankie reunites with her three best friends, Lida "Stoney" Newsome, Cleopatra "Cleo" Sims, and Tisean "T.T." Williams in the projects and is furious because she was fired. Cleo states they should rob a bank themselves to collect all of the money and get out of the projects while being able to have what they want. Frankie agrees, while the other two friends aren't following along with what they are saying. Eventually, Frankie decides to work at a janitorial company with her friends even though they are treated with no respect from their boss, Luther, and receive little pay.
Jesus Shuttlesworth (Ray Allen), a top-ranked athlete and student at Lincoln High School in Coney Island, Brooklyn, New York, is being pursued by the top college basketball programs in the nation. His father, Jake (Denzel Washington), is a convicted felon serving time at Attica Correctional Facility for accidentally killing his wife (Jesus' mother) by pushing her while arguing with Jesus at the age of 12. The father is temporarily released by the governor, an influential alum of "Big State," one of the colleges Jesus is considering, so that he might persuade his son to sign with the governor's college; if successful he'll get an early release from prison.
In a Brooklyn housing project, a group of "clockers" - street-level drug dealers - sell drugs for Rodney Little (Delroy Lindo), a local drug lord. Rodney tells Ronald "Strike" Dunham (Mekhi Phifer), one of his lead clockers, that another dealer, Darryl Adams (Steve White), is stealing from him and "got to be got", implying that he wants Strike to kill Darryl. Strike then meets with his brother, Victor Dunham (Isaiah Washington) and tries to persuade Victor to kill Darryl Adams.
The film focuses on two young rap artists, Subliminal, an Israeli Jew, and Tamer Nafar, a Palestinian citizen of Israel, and focuses on their music, friendship, and their politicization as public figures. The film traces the relationship between Tamer and Subliminal, as the events of the Second Intifada unfold, and lets the viewer draw conclusions from the souring relations between the two as an individual representation of the polarization process which took place during these years of bloody conflict. In this aspect, the film succeeds in delivering the atmosphere of the loss of hopes for peace after the failure of the Camp David summit between Ehud Barak and Yasser Arafat and the renewed intensity of the conflict since. The film was featured in the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival.
In the spring of 1969, Anthony Curtis (Larenz Tate) is about to graduate from high school. Anthony is not going to college, and needing to get away from home to find himself, he enlists in the U.S. Marine Corps shortly after graduation. He is sent to Vietnam, leaving behind his middle-class family, a pregnant girlfriend (Rose Jackson), and small time crook Kirby (Keith David), who is like a second father.
Set in Detroit, Gridlock'd centers around heroin addicts Spoon (Tupac Shakur), Stretch (Tim Roth) and Cookie (Thandie Newton). They are all in a band together in the spoken word genre. They go by the name of Eight Mile Road, with Cookie on the vocals, Spoon on the bass guitar (plus secondary vocals), and Stretch on the piano. Spoon and Stretch decide to kick their habit after Cookie overdoses on her first hit. Throughout a disastrous day, the two addicts dodge police and local criminals while struggling with an apathetic government bureaucracy that thwarts their entrance into a rehabilitation program.
Magdalena, a fourteen-year-old girl from a working-class Mexican American family in Echo Park, Los Angeles, attends her cousin Eileen's quinceañera, an extravagant coming-of-age ceremony to celebrate her fifteenth birthday. Eileen's older brother Carlos—who has been disowned by his family due to his homosexuality and now lives with his great-uncle Tomas—arrives at the celebrations but is forced to leave by his father. Magdalena herself is about to turn fifteen but her parents cannot afford to host a quinceañera as lavish as Eileen's, and they deny her repeated requests to hire a Hummer limousine for the occasion. While preparing for her quinceañera, Magdalena learns that she is pregnant by her friend Herman although they had only once engaged in non-penetrative intercourse. Her Christian father is furious, believing that Magdalena has had premarital sex despite her protestations that she is still a virgin. She leaves her family to move in with Tomas and Carlos and continues to see Herman until she discovers that his mother has sent him away to live with relatives to prevent him from seeing Magdalena.
Le rappeur Jay-Z annonce qu'il prend sa retraite. Ce film retrace l'enregistrement de son dernier opus (à l'époque), The Black Album. Il s'entoure de ses collaborateurs habituels (Kanye West, Timbaland, Just Blaze, Pharrell Williams). En parallèle, on voit des images de son concert d'adieux au célèbre Madison Square Garden de sa ville natale New York où étaient présents de très nombreuses célébrités sur rap et du R&B.
Marcus Burnett (Martin Lawrence) and Mike Lowrey (Will Smith) are best friends and detectives in the narcotics division of the Miami Police Department. One night, $100 million of Mafia seized heroin is stolen from a secure police vault. This is a major blow to Burnett and Lowrey, because it was the biggest drug bust of their careers. Internal Affairs suspects that it was an inside job with corrupted police officers and warns the rest of the department that if they do not recover the drugs in five days, the narcotics division will be shut down.
The seemingly random murder of their adoptive mother, Evelyn Mercer (Fionnula Flanagan), at a Highland Park, Michigan convenience store, brings four brothers back home to Detroit, Michigan to find out what happened. Originally under the impression the crime was a simple robbery-gone-wrong, the brothers soon discover that the robbery was merely a cover for what was, in fact, a hit put out on Evelyn. After this revelation, Bobby (Mark Wahlberg), Angel (Tyrese Gibson), Jeremiah (André Benjamin) and Jack Mercer (Garrett Hedlund) track down the hired guns who killed Evelyn. Refusing to say anything, they are unceremoniously executed by Bobby and Angel.
Bobby Johnson (Glenn Plummer) is a young black gang member of Hoover Street Deuces, or simply "Deuce". He gets paroled from the Youth Authority and he meets up with his best friend/fellow gang member Ray Ray (Byron Minns), Loco and Bear. As it turns out, Bobby's girlfriend Carole (LaRita Shelby) gave birth to his son Jimmy (Christian Coleman) while he was incarcerated. The Deuce gang goes out to a club owned by rival drug dealer Genie Lamp to celebrate Bobby's release, but Genie confronts them and threats are exchanged.
Jim Davis (Christian Bale) is a former U.S. Army Ranger who suffers from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Jim has a Mexican girlfriend, Marta (Tammy Trull), whom he is determined to marry, and bring into the United States to start a life together. With this in mind, Jim returns to Los Angeles, California.
Patricia Dombrowski a 23 ans. Elle rêve de devenir la nouvelle star du rap et de rencontrer son idole, O-Z. Elle veut aussi quitter sa petite ville du New Jersey, où elle travaille comme serveuse dans un bar miteux. Patti doit aussi veiller sur Nana, sa grand-mère malade qu’elle adore, et Barb, sa mère, une chanteuse ratée et totalement instable et alcoolique. Son meilleur ami, Jheri, la pousse chaque jour à montrer ses talents de rappeuse. Elle les exprime un soir durant une battle dans la rue. Patti et Jheri vont ensuite faire la rencontre de Basterd, un musicien aussi étrange que silencieux.