Wassup Rockers (trailer)
In what is probably the most enjoyable (relatively) recent movie I've seen this year, director Larry Clark smoothes some of his rougher edges and scores with this low key, low budget modern day punk rock anthem of a film that once again tends to subvert the traditional distinctions separating documentary and fiction filmmaking. "Wassup Rockers" hovers somewhere between being a slacker homage to Walter Hill's "The Warriors" and a contemporary updating of Penelope Spheeris' early works, constructing a fictional narrative around a real-life group of Latino immigrant skate punk teens living in South Central L.A. It's a loose and sometimes oddly moving film, and it managed to rekindle my hopes that just maybe the better qualities of the spirit of early punk rock aren't quite yet dead after all.