"Sometimes I wish I had a spaceship.. Just hangout in space where it's quiet. And no one can f**k with me."Kicks starts out with us being introduced to Brandon, a 15 year old living in the East Bay. We meet his two best friends Albert and Rico. The three live a normal day to day life of school, chasing girls, and getting high. Brandon is small for his age and doesn't a hold a lot of confidence within himself. This is due to his size, his longing for and lack of experience with the opposite sex, and most of all his confidence and status among his peers. Brandon's sneakers are busted, and he can't afford a sought after pair of Jordans. Albert and Rico both have Jordans. And hot kicks mean status.This is a world where "J's" and other symbols give you a status.. Where others might look at you like you ARE someone. Where others admire and aspire for what you have.We see this when Brandon acquires a pair of J's from a street vendor, and soon thereafter is beaten up by a group of thugs led by a man named Flaco. He is forced to give them away. The three boys decide to embark on an adventure over the bridge to Oakland to get the kicks back.Don't get me wrong, this film isn't about Jordans. Or status. It's a coming of age film where we witness a boy at a point in his life where he learns to stand up for himself, and to truly realize what's important.This is director Justin Tipping's feature-length debut. Tipping's realistic vision of this world comes through full force in Kicks. The film is presented in chapters each with a title card featuring a song that is a bit of a hint at what's to come. The cinematography by Michael Ragen is beautiful and aesthetically the film is absolute. The acting by Jahking Guillory (Brandon) and Kofi Siriboe (Flaco) is memorable.The film is fast and harsh at times, yet so dreamy and alluring at others. The portrayal of how violent our world can be is disheartening, although at the end of the film you are able to corral a sense of hope. I would recommend this movie to anyone, and I'll be looking forward to Tipping's next project.

Trigger Warning(s): Gun Shots and BloodReview (with Spoilers)Noted Actor(s)Brandon (Jahking Guillory) | Albert (Christopher Jordan Wallace) | Rico (Christopher Meyer) | Flaco (Kofi Siriboe) | Jeremiah (Michael Smith Jr.)StorylineBrandon is poor. So poor that while his friends Rico and Albert have a fresh pair of kicks, Brandon's look like he got them at least one or two years ago. So with him hustling candy bars to get some nice shoes, naturally when someone takes them he wants to get them back. Problem is, the person who took them is Flaco. A local hoodlum who is definitely about that life but can Brandon step up, either with help or on his own, and take back what's his? Or is he still a boy and not yet a man?HighlightsThis Movie Will Get You HypedI'm not sure who of you out there may have gone to an urban movie, in a theater which mostly caters to Blacks and Hispanics, and had that one person who decided to vocalize or express how a particular scene made them feel. Well, let me tell you that person may end up being you with this movie. Something about the way violence happens, the way jokes go down, and how the characters interact is very authentic. To the point you almost one to join in and comment as if they going to look at you and laugh, tell you to shut up, or something like that.The Topic of Manhood, Friendship, and InnocenceIn the film, there are not real roles for women. Pretty much it is all about the friendships between men, loss of innocence, be it with sex or violence, and what it means to be a man. We see this in a few ways. The first, and unfortunate way, deals with the boys having sex or getting with a young woman. Like many a coming of age film, sex is a symbol of manhood but, unfortunately, the film is an example of toxic masculinity. Perhaps making you wonder why this is a highlight? Well, because in the movie you see how such a thing forms.Take Flaco's little brother, or son, Jeremiah. From what it seems, Flaco takes that kid with him everywhere. Be it him going to a party to get high, drunk, and maybe feel up on a shorty, or to watch people ride around in cars. The boy, who can't be older than 10, observes, absorbs, and with him singing a lyric, seeing how comfortable he is around guns and violence, you see how Flaco has normalized that in his life. Making it so, even at such a young age, his innocence is gone. Naivety about the life Flaco lives is not only non-existent but discouraged. Manhood is presented as taking what you want, defending and keeping what's yours, and violence is a norm and not a last resort.CriticismAin't One Positive Depiction of Black Women in the Whole MovieWhen you watch the credits you'll see the name of a few girls like Alexa and Mercedez, but will have a hell of a time trying to remember who the hell was that. Reason being, women solely play the role of someone to mess around with in this movie. If they aren't grinding up on someone, they are as ghetto as possible. If they aren't in the process of having sex, they are about to. I mean, to my surprise we didn't end up seeing a crackhead saying they would suck one of the leads members for a dollar.But to add insult to injury, we don't even get to see Brandon's, Albert's, or Rico's mom. The only mother, much less woman, who isn't problematic is Brandon's grandma and she has a non-speaking role and is bed ridden.On The FenceIt's All About SneakersIt all really boils down to sneakers. If you dig deeper you can find other things to note and talk about but, no matter how you look at it, Brandon's passage to being the local definition of a man came from some sneakers. Of which, so much nonsense happens that, paired with the negative depiction of women, it makes it hard to say, without pause, you like this film in such a politically correct world.Overall: Mixed (Home Viewing)

Full of suspense.... New actors with serious character profiles and personalities. Best to watch when alone cause you may react with mixed emotions. Great story line with creative twists. Movie is based in a documentary style with action movie imaging. Feels like a true story that Jordan paid for. Based in the projects and people you can relate with. Funny and motivating cheering for the good guy, feeling for the bad. Well worth watching and would recommend it even to the older aged person to watch. If you love Boyz in the hood, Friday, Menace To Society, Welcome to Compton. You will love this movie. Very Entertaining and life like story you can relate to.

Definitely not for everyone, this brutally stark drama centers on 15- year-old Brandon (Jahking Guillory), who's mired in poverty in the East Bay, Richmond, California. He's constantly bullied for his diminutive size and for the fact that his footwear is so poor, in a culture where sharp sneakers mean status.Brandon finally gets enough money together to purchase his dream sneakers from a street vendor, a pair of original red and black Michael Jordan's. As soon as he begins to wear them, he can see his confidence soar, as well as his status among his peers.However, soon thereafter a bunch of thugs confront him, beat him, and steal his new shoes. Brandon decides he's going to get them back no matter what the cost. Thus, he embarks on a dangerous odyssey, with his two best friends, to Oakland to retrieve his sneakers, which will result in lots of tragic violence.There's pervasive explicit and raw language here, lots of on screen drug usage, and various sexual situations.The acting in the movie is incredibly realistic on all fronts, and I read that director and co-writer (with Joshua Beirne-Golden) Justin Tipping grew up in that area, which would account for this stark realism. All in all, if one has the stomach for it this film can be painfully intense, yet it left me with a lingering sense of sadness as well.