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Bomb The System

2005, Movie, R, 93 mins

Bomb The System: Review

BOMB THE SYSTEM
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That's "bomb" as in cover with graffiti, not blow up: Twenty-three-year-old NYU graduate Adam Bhala Lough's first feature, set in the modern-day world of New York City graffiti artists, has style to burn, even if it's driven by a naive notion of bombing as rebellious, antiestablishment visual poetry. High-school grad Anthony "Blest" Campo (Mark Webber) grew up in the shadow of his older brother, a legendary graffiti tagger named Lazaro (Blake Lethem) who died when Blest was only 7. Now 19, Blest has a room in a downtown loft owned by Hazer (Joey Dedio), an old friend of Lazaro's who made a bundle acting in Spanish-language soap operas and now finds himself adrift. By day Blest "racks" (shoplifts) spray paint; he spends his nights smoking dope and bombing with Justin "Buk-50" Broady (graffiti writer Gano Grills) and Justin's 15-year-old brother, "Lune" (Jade Yorker). Blest's mom (Donna Mitchell) is trying to steer him into art school, but she's competing with a modern-day Lost Boy paradise of nonstop parties and complete freedom from responsibility. The snake in Blest's Eden is dirty cop Bobby Cox (Al Sapienza) of the NYPD's antivandal squad, who has Blest and company in his sights. Cox's more levelheaded partner, Nole Shorts (hip-hop journalist Bonz Malone), urges him to lighten up, but Cox has hated taggers since the early '80s and isn't about to stop. When he catches Lune at work, he uses the opportunity to beat and humiliate him, prompting Buk-50 to declare all-out war on the cops. Will the love of politicized riot grrrl Alex (Jaclyn DeSantis), who practices graffiti as an anticorporate statement, finally convince Blest to grow up, or will he join Buk-50's crusade? Jaggedly edited by Jay Rabinowitz and shot by Ben Kutchins in a vivid, hallucinatory haze that recalls Christopher Doyle's work for Wong Kar-Wai, Lough's love letter to painted New York, loosely based on his experimental thesis short "Jes One," throbs with energy and style. In the end it's all seductive surface and no substance, but Lough has a bold eye and a vivid sense of uniquely urban beauty. leave a comment --Maitland McDonagh
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