ATL: Critic Reviews

Really, all we wanna do is skate, skate, skate.

A couple of rap stars make respectable starts on acting careers in this tale of black teenagers in Atlanta, despite a script marred by cliches and predictability.

Notwithstanding the melodrama and the often ham-handed directing, ATL somehow works.

ATL is one of those filmic byproducts (in this case, a promotional vehicle for the rapper Tip Harris, a.k.a. T.I.) that somehow manage to emerge from the mill of commerce with their modesty preserved.

It unpretentiously serves class consciousness and conflict with its Cadillac music, attempting to capture -- not capitalize on -- the Atlanta scene that's spawned an aesthetic and a mythology all its own.

It feels like a real window on the lives of disenfranchised youths -- these are in South Atlanta -- as they make their way in a society that doesn't cut them any breaks.

A mellow and engrossing coming-of-age film about a young crew on the south side of Atlanta.

ATL has more room for nuance than most films unfairly lumped under the black-movie label.

No, ATL isn't a drug movie, and it doesn't send its characters on a harrowing journey into danger. It's a film about growing up and working, about falling in love, about planning for your future, and about the importance of friends.

Like most media these days, ATL feels like the product of video-on-demand-era focus groups, which means that it's entertaining, but not smart.

Making his feature-film debut, music-video director Chris Robinson expertly choreographs the skating sequences, which are exhilarating fun.

An easygoing, likable coming-of-age movie about black Georgia high schoolers, ATL is a veritable La-Z-Boy recliner of a movie.

ATL starts out somewhat fresh, but then turns slowly stale as its story of African-American kids in Atlanta takes on more and more of the standard elements of growing up in the hood movies.

Despite an occasional whiff of cheese, it's mostly a fresh, funny, coming-of-age story that feels authentic.

Warner Bros.' low-budget stab at capturing an urban niche audience is higher on stylistic dazzle than originality or coherence, making it an unlikely candidate to bust out of the box office ghetto.

A thoroughly convincing portrait of black teens in Atlanta, ATL has the same broad range of laughs and fears as Fast Times at Ridgemont High.

The second half is clumsier than the first, and you get the impression that the studio rushed to cut things that hadn't worked in last fall's kids-skating flop and play up the Boyz aspects of the routine moral-dilemma plot.

It's something akin to the earlier films of Spike Lee -- She's Gotta Have It and Crooklyn come to mind -- in that the characters are cherished for their human qualities, not for how well they swagger onto the screen.

The movie is directed by a prominent video director, Chris Robinson (Jay-Z, Alicia Keys) and, no surprise, it feels less like a conventional movie than a video compilation of flashy scenes, montages and sound-track opportunities.

An engaging experience.

Several good ideas for a movie rumble around inside ATL, but they never coalesce.

Really, ATL -- like last year's Roll Bounce -- is about roller skating.

Amateur camera work and conspicuous plotting reduce the film's regional sensibilities to sleep-inducing pap.

A tip of the cap to Tip Harris and Lauren London for it is their chemistry and charm which allows one to believe in their tenderhearted romance in an atmosphere where women are regarded as objects and affectionately called 'bitches' and 'hos.'