Slam Movie Review

A prison film with a difference: poetry, not violence, can set you free. The fact that two of the cast members are poets in their own right gives Slam a sincere, eloquent quality, enhanced by the documentary skills of director Marc Levin, making his fictional feature film debut here. Saul Williams is Ray Joshua, a small-time pot peddler who is present when his supplier Big Mike is shot. Ray is sent to prison for two years for possession of marijuana. While in prison, he resists joining the various factions, but becomes friends with one of the leaders, Bonz Malone as Bopha. Ray joins a writing workshop and is encouraged by Lauren Bell, the volunteer teacher. Bopha helps Ray obtain bail and Ray discovers that Big Mike was blinded by the shooting, but still alive. Having poetry as an outlet makes Ray keenly aware that there is another way to deal with his life than with revenge and gangland warfare and Lauren is around to support his change of heart and mind. Naturally, if Ray and Lauren were mediocre poets, Slam wouldn't work, but Williams’ and Sonja Sohn's rousing poetry slam really strikes a nerve with an audience.

1998 (R) 100m/C Saul Williams, Sonja Sohn, Bonz Malone; D: Marc Levin; W: Marc Levin, Saul Williams, Sonja Sohn, Richard Stratton; C: Mark Benjamin. Sundance Film Festival ‘98: Grand Jury Prize; Nominations: Independent Spirit Awards ‘99: Debut Performance (Sohn), Debut Performance (Williams). VHS, DVD