Fifth Ward . Austin Chronicle . 03-30-98

Fifth Ward

DIRECTED BY: Greg Carter

REVIEWED: 03-30-98

Rule number one for first-time filmmakers: Don't screen your film until it's absolutely ready to be seen by the public. There's no surer kiss of death, and though you may be the proud papa of your cinematic labor of love, to the rest of us it's still a grainy, squawking fetus. Despite Fifth Ward's ambitious style and noble, socially conscious storyline, the film - which was screened on a video projector from a not-quite-final Avid edit - is a messy mix of bad lighting, muddy sound, and thudding hip hop that sounds like it was recorded in a closet. Plot-wise, Fifth Ward follows James Kennedy, a young high-school graduate whose brother Ray Ray has just been murdered in a drug-related killing during the film's opening minutes. Now it's up to James to either follow his homies as they gather guns and plan a retaliatory shooting, or straighten up and get the hell out of the hood while he still has his circulatory system intact. A little bit Boyz N the Hood, a little bit Houston geography lesson, and a lot of gangsta polemics, Fifth Ward is fairly tedious stuff that not only looks like it needs a few more weeks of post, but also fails to spark the imagination in any noticeable way. Obviously, Carter rushed to make it into the festival circuit, and the end result seems just as hurried and stillborn as you might expect.

--Marc Savlov

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Fifth Ward

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