Black and Blue

3 Reasons to See It: Some really good themes about being caught between communities; some really interesting themes about Louisiana itself; and some good choices on shots.

3 Reasons Not to See It: It's an average story; some of the shot choices are really odd; and not much sticks out about it.

Going in: According to the trailer, this is a movie that is about which community you belong to. I'm hoping it'll be similar to Marshall, but fiction. Something about the trailer doesn't instill me with a lot of hope though.

Popcorn: 7/10. This wasn't a bad movie, but not the most interesting either. It had some high points but also had some low points. However, it did have a lot of good things to say and was worth seeing. If you're an average movie goer, make sure to catch it on DVD.

Art: 7/10. Some really good themes and filmography but also a pretty average story and some big misses.

Acting: 5/6. For the most part, the acting was pretty average. But I have to give a shout-out to Mike Colter. He had this one shot that will haunt me forever. Really well done.

Music: 3/4. The music hit some good high points, but wasn't stellar. But overall it was pretty good.

Filming: 3/4. I was really torn on this. The night shots on this were really well done and it's something I've been looking at more closely in movies. At the same time, there were some really bad misses. Warped lensing chiefly comes to mind and some odd choices that were reminiscent of the found-footage movie types.

Art Dept: 3/4. Everything was done well enough to keep me in the movie, but not anything that stood out - except for the lead actress's hair for some reason. In a good way, that seemed to stick out for some reason. And the set design around the housing.

Editing: 3/4. Neither good or bad. Pretty straightforward.

Story: 5/8. Pretty conflicted here as well. It was a pretty average story and there were couple of moments in dialog and character choices that didn't seem too realistic. However, they made everything about choice and they turned the entire theme around with the villain's monologue. I don't know if was intentional but it made me think about things in a different way and made it seem like this was what the movie was really about.

Directing: 4/6. Like it enough. Had some high and low points but overall was worth seeing.

Production: 3/4. A really strong premise but a pretty average story.