Slam

Mars Distribution | Release Date: October 7, 1998

CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION

73	METASCORE Generally favorable reviews based on 19 Critic Reviews

Positive:

Mixed:

Negative:

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Critic Reviews

Critic score Publication By date

Joshua Klein

The powerful, natural acting is right out of a documentary, and the open-ended conclusion is an equally challenging statement about the sad futility of sending young people to jail. Read full review

Roger Ebert

Slam is a fable disguised as a slice of life, and cobbled together out of too many pieces that don't fit smoothly together. It's moving, but not as effective as it could have been. Read full review

Peter Travers

Any cornball contrivances in the plot dissipate in watching the knockout talent of Williams, a performance artist with the exhilarating fire that only the best actors possess. Read full review

Bob Graham

Slam, directed by Marc Levin, is schematic but effective as it makes its points about African Americans caught in the Washington, D.C., criminal justice system. It's got a wonderful eye and, for a film, ear. Read full review

Jane Ganahl

Despite the occasional uneven patch, the emotional punch of Slam leaves you wrung out as the credits unexpectedly start to roll. You want a happy ending, you realize the deck is stacked against it, but - thanks to the redemptive power of the spoken word - you have reason to hope. Read full review

Staff (Not Credited)

Directed and cowritten by Marc Levin with an intentionally untidy, restless, handheld style that owes a lot to his background as a documentary filmmaker, Slam effectively gets at the deadly, no-way-out despair that can squeeze a man as he realizes he’s become a numbered nobody in the huge, imperfect justice system. Levin’s best idea, though, is to counterbalance that hopelessness with freeing blasts of verse, performed with such drama and passion that audiences may want to break into applause. Read full review

Stephen Holden

What Slam possesses is real passion, and that is in short supply in movies these days. Read full review

James Berardinelli

The real reason to see Slam, however, isn't as much for the story as it is for the energy and tone. The moments when Slam soars makes the rest of it palatable. Read full review

Staff (Not Credited)

Shot on actual locations in just nine days by Levin, a former documentarist, and improvised within a detailed scene-by-scene outline, this is a perplexing mix of truth and falsity, spontaneity and cliché. Read full review

TV Guide MagazineStaff (Not Credited)

Although it begins promisingly enough, with a documentary-like look at the options available to young African-American men who grow up in the "ghetto life," this visually polished film stumbles when it comes to actually telling a story. Read full review

Emanuel Levy

The fervent performances by the central duo, real-life poets Williams and Sohn (who wrote their own material), are impeccable, clearly stemming from their deep moral commitment to their work. Read full review

Michael O'Sullivan

Director Marc Levin's shaky, hand-held camera lends "Slam" an unvarnished, documentary feel. The script – credited not only to Levin, Bonz Malone and Richard Stratton, but to acclaimed performance poets Sohn and Williams – is dense and difficult. Read full review

Jay Carr

With the charismatic Williams and Sohn leading the way, "Slam" electrifyingly moves beyond wishful thinking to hot immediacy, and, yes, earned optimism. [23 Oct 1998, p.D4]

The picture is ragged around the edges, but the acting is heartfelt and the raplike poetry sessions have astonishing vigor. [06 Nov 1998, p.B1]

Liam Lacey

Slam is a film about rap poetry, romance and gangster culture that blends melodrama, visceral excitement -- and a lot of preaching. [23 Oct 1998, p.D3]

Kevin Thomas

Levin brings to "Slam" a raw, impressionistic style that expresses its highly charged emotions effectively and goes a long way to offset that there's not much in the way of traditional-style character development. [21 Oct 1998, p.F5]

The Observer (UK)Philip French

It's flat, unrevealing, but powerfully sincere. [11 Apr 1999, p.6]

100

Jay Boyar

Not only does Slam strike me as one of the best films about being a writer I've ever seen, it is also the least sentimental coming-of-age movie to come along in years. [06 Nov 1998, p.19]

The movie is not great, but it is sincere and has enough powerful segments and raw energy to keep it exciting and provocative. [13 Dec 1998, p.D8]