Slam

A film by Marc Levin (USA, 1998),

with Saul Williams, Sonja Sohn, Bonz Malone, Beau Sia.

1998 Cannes Film Festival Caméra d'Or and 1998 Sundance Film Festival Grand Prize.

Washington D. C., Ray is a gifted rapper/poet, who is arrested on a petty drug charge and ends up to be swallowed up by the capital's criminal justice system. In prison, he meets a beautiful writing teacher who recognizes his unique talents and inspires him to use his outstanding power of creative expression...

Slam as a means of expressing one's emotions had never been broached before in such an unconcealed and exhilarating way. Levin's film is therefore to be praised for its originality and its poetic boldness, not to mention a more than convincing cast. Additionally, Levin resorts to a mix of devices (slow/fast motion, film texture and sensibility) that visually makes the film interesting while the pacing complies with the groovy rhythms of the soundtrack. A couple of awkward links though, probably for the sake of art : the scene with Ray, with both his hands behind his head, by the moonlight, AND with the golden reflections of the ocean, is definitely cheesy and totally comes out of the blue when referring to the previous and following scenes. It looks like Levin indulged himself a couple of times with such aesthetic scenes. The other reproach I would address Levin is his somewhat biased approach of the characters : all of them actually look nice and reasonable enough, they all reply to Ray's slam with incredibly spontaneous non-violence... Not that I'm so cynical about people but, hey, who do you think you're kidding? Still, I loved the open end that leaves us with our own responsibilities. Slam is undoubtedly a poetic and fully commited film. For those two reasons, it's probably definitely worth the experience.

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