Illtown

Illtown is a place in the mind more than a piece of geography. To say that Illtown concerns young Miami drug dealers is almost to camouflage its remarkable style and emotional substance. Writer-director Nick Gomez, already acclaimed for Laws of Gravity and New Jersey Drive, makes a major step forward with a work that draws the spectator into a seductively beautiful world combining fantasy and dream space with brutal social reality. A genre film, to be sure, but one that makes you think of classics like Little Caesar or Hawk’s Scarface, not because it’s one of countless imitations but because it takes their familiar codes and makes them strange and new. With Lili Taylor, Michael Rapaport, and Tony Danza. –New York Film Festival