Skid Row

Playing at being homeless and destitute in a bid to see how the other half lives could be the worst kind of "look at me, I'm socially conscious" celebrity stunt, but rapper Pras Michel of The Fugees parlays it into a visually chaotic but often affecting documentary directed — "caught" is probably a better word for the film's murky hidden-camera footage — by Niva Dorell, Marshall Tyler and Ross Clarke.

Accompanied by their undercover crew, Pras spent nine days on Skid Row, a five-square-block area in downtown Los Angeles, that Eddie Estrada, director of La Mission — one of dozens of social-service entities serving the community — estimates houses some 11,000...