Gritty and moving

Rating: 6/10 (2 December 2017)

Terrence Howard turns in a perfect performance as a pimp, pusher and aspiring rapper, working all the angles to get his first record made and leave the mean Memphis streets behind.
This is a gritty and moving story. Its raw (in places), dark and believable, and of course the music is great, I've had that Oscar winning song stuck in my head for days now. Some excellent sections of dialogue too..."I'm here trying to squeeze a dollar out of a dime, and I ain't even got a cent man."
Howard is fantastic but I also reallyfell for the sub cast of extended family and friends; Taryn Manning,Anthony Anderson, DJ Qualls, Taraji P. Henson, all these charactersshow varying degrees of desperation.