Slam

Plot synopsis:
Raymond "Ray" Joshua (played by Saul Williams) is a young man growing up in the Southeast, Washington, D.C. neighborhood of Dodge City, slang for a real Southeast D.C. neighborhood. Despite his innate gift for poetry and his aspiration to be a rapper, he finds it difficult to escape the pressures of his surroundings: violence and drug dealing. While participating in a drug deal gone wrong, Ray's close friend Big Mike is shot. Ray is caught by the police and sent to the District of Columbia Department of Corrections' central detention facility. He is arraigned for possession of a controlled substance at the H. Carl Moultrie Courthouse and bail is set at $10,000. When his public defender explains his options ("cop out" and plead guilty), "rock" (stand trial), or "cooperate" (serve as an informant), Ray despairs, particularly as he is being pressured to participate in a drug culture "inside" very similar to what he was a part of "outside".
Ray takes no sides, unwilling to believe that his options are limited to the choices he is being presented with. When threatened with violence in the prison yard, he retaliates with words, speaking the truths that he's witnessed in the form of a poetic rap meant to show the other inmates how their power and energy is being diverted into petty struggles with each other, rather than being directed toward the system that is keeping them down. In prison, he participates in the writing class of teacher Lauren Bell (Sonja Sohn), whom he comes to respect and admire. She advises him to pay more attention to his talents.
When Ray is unexpectedly released on bail for a few days prior to his court date by an incarcerated drug dealer whom Ray had inspired with his revolutionary ideas, he is able to convince his friends and their Dodge City crew not to retaliate with more violence for the shooting — to break the cycle instead. He explains that the "projects" where they all live and die are a government experiment and that continuing to kill each other is exactly what those who set up the experiment want them to be doing. On the outside, he also reunites with Bell, and is welcomed into her circle of friends at a poetry reading at her home. They wind up spending the night together, despite her reservations about the future. The next day, she urges him to settle his legal troubles by agreeing to serve a year or two of prison time, rather than fighting the charges and potentially being put away for much longer.
They quarrel, because Ray feels that Bell doesn't understand his situation. He leaves, but shows up that night at a poetry slam event in D.C.'s Cleveland Park neighborhood that Bell had invited him to, just in time to see her perform an extremely powerful and empathetic piece that was clearly written for him. When the crowd demands an encore, she invites Ray onto the stage to perform instead, and he delivers an impromptu dramatic poem — scrawled as he crossed the city on public transit on his way to the slam — an emotional piece about black males and the criminal justice system. When the crowd demands an encore, Ray tells Lauren he needs to get some air, then leaves again. He wanders the streets until he is drawn to the Washington Monument.

Tags: melodrama, revenge, flashback

Review:
A Nutshell Review: Slam.
I guess in movies with sports themes, it is never really much about the goal and the destination, but rather the journey the characters take in finding strengths amongst themselves, shore up weaknesses and collectively present and mount a challenge, that makes it compelling viewing.
And it's little surprise that Slam fits into this mould and what resulted is a thoroughly enjoyable film on schoolyard pride, camaraderie and 3 on 3 basketball.It is almost a no brainer to want to compare Slam with the other recent basketball movie effort from Asia, Kung Fu Dunk.
While the target audience might be different with the latter appealing more to fans of Jay Chou, Slam has a more universal appeal and easily identifiable themes that don't pretend to be anything more than they are.
There are many aspects in Slam that makes it a far more superior basketball / sports themed movie, and I'd probably incur the wrath of many fans if I were to state that the music here by Machi Entertainment outscores Jay Chou's rap on tofu (Swordsman Chou by the way) from the 3 point line (check out "Nothing is Impossible" to keep that adrenaline pumping, from the official website).The relationships between the characters here also felt more down to earth, probably without the "star appeal" factor to take the attention away from the collective, with the relatively new protagonists given almost equal opportunity in a sport that emphasizes on teamwork, rather than the sole fixation in executing a particular move in the various permutations possible.
In that respect, the moves here were sans Kung Fu and wire work stunts, keeping it very much grounded to reality, and of course, believable, while at the same time, entertaining with nifty executions.
However, those who cannot tolerate MTV-styled quick edits might find something to gripe about here, but I thought those hand-held shots employed fit the premise of the game, not the standard court games that you watch on television, but the quicker in pace 3 on 3 street game, giving it a feeling of raw energy somehow, especially coming from a team of youthful exuberance.At its core, Slam contains a simple losers versus bullies storyline, and one between the haves and the have-nots.
Mouth (Lin Xiao Fan) is your typical introverted kid who's having major troubles with his non performance in his schoolwork, while nursing a high school crush on the prettiest (and smartest too) girl in school Xiao Xiao (Zhao Wenqi).
But his passion for the basketball game sees him train by walking around with weights attached to his legs, and shooting hoops with good friend Monkey (Zhang Yi Shan), whose cousin Jason (Andrew Chou aka Machi Di Di from the Taiwanese hip hop group Machi) completes the trio.
And as you may have it, the one-dimensional bullies, led by Li Wei (Wang Wei) of "The Hawks", take every opportunity to stir trouble with our motley gang, inside and out of the basketball court.Sound quite familiar?
Yes it does, and in any self-respecting sports movie, there's a well made training montage to inspirational, beat-pumping music too.
But what shines here are the earnest portrayals, and not for one minute I felt that the actors were trying too hard to act their roles, but were quite natural in fleshing out their respective characters, so much so that they endear and are likable enough for you to root for them all the way, and not only when the time came for it, like the big games.
Needless to say with teenagers in the brew, parents too come into the picture, and there were some subtle reminders on developing the potential of a child, and that need not necessarily come from books alone.
And furthermore, to do so by teaching them to combat self-doubt.Succinctly put, Slam is a simple to follow story with excellent delivery that worked remarkably.
It took a while for the main action to come to the foreground, but when it did, for casual / non-basketball players like myself, you'll probably find yourself wide-eyed at the level of energy exuded, and wanting to shoot some hoops with friends too, replicating the moves being an optional.
Should Goal be used as an epitome of a good football movie, then Slam will be in my list as one for a good street basketball film.
Highly recommended!.
Dumb sports movie.
Seriously, this movie uses so many clichés from sports films like there's no tomorrow.
The storyline is wholly impossible given that the three kids have minimal basketball skills and are completely overwhelmed by the other teams in the 3-3 tournament.
The team sucks so bad and then starts to get game right as the tournament picks up?
I also have no idea why the Chinese American boy was put into the story -- he added little or nothing to the movie.The viewer never gets to see who the main character really is and why he has a strained relationship with his father.What a waste of about 93 minutes.
I certainly do not recommend this movie to anyone..
A nice Asian gem.
I got bored by Hollywood production, because their movies started too look all the same, so I often watch foreign movies.
I have learned to love both European and Asian cinema because they offer something new, instead of superhero movies and shallow comedies which are lately coming from Holywood.
Slam is a hidden gem, nicely paced, with a simple yet interesting story, beliveable acting, I enjoyed watching it with my friends..
A great family movie.
I watched Slam with my girlfriend and we both liked it, even though, it might be a movie for a younger audience.
There was a decent suspense in the movie, the story was cute and we were not bored for a single minute.
Editing is very good, and overall it is a very motivational and a good-vibe movie.
The director did a wonderful job, the cast was great and main characters are very sympathetic.
Slam was a good Saturday night time waster..
A good time waster.
I love watching non-Holywood movies, especially when they come from Asia, because they have a special impression on me.
This cute little movie was a pleasant surprise and, both my kids and I, loved it!
When it comes to family movies I watch them only because of my kids, because I am a fan of different genres, but Slam was a good time waster.
The action in the movie is great, young actors were OK, some of them were more convincing than the others, and the story was nice.
I would recommend it to the audiences of all ages..
Good and relaxing movie.
A nice Asian movie that is a great piece of work done by Mr. Jonathan Lim, who is known to me by his movie Pali Road, which I also loved.
In some segments it resembles to Holywood kind of movies, but in a GOOD way!
The story is easy to understand, most of the characters are likeable and the story develops nicely.
The young actors did an outstanding job in portraying their roles and I would definitely recommend Slam to anyone wanting to watch a quality sport-family movie..
Enjoyed it !.
If you are into sports and family movies, you don't want to miss this one.
It will probably be more appealing to younger audiences, but I also liked it and I am 35.
The story is not new, a battle between complete underdogs and the ones that are suppose to beat them easily.
I won't reveal much of the story, but I found the movie both motivational and inspirational.
I liked the characters, the action and the ending was great too.
I would gladly recommend this cute little movie to anyone!