
Editorial Review:
Amazon.com
Despite its grim milieu--a Los Angeles park that is home to cocaine addicts, gangsters, and hustlers--MacArthur Park explodes with energy and humanity. The ensemble drama's compressed setting is like a small sea in which one denizen's misdeed or scam-gone-wrong creates currents of violence swallowing everyone else. In the 48 hours or so of the story's action, one low-level coke dealer rips off a fading television star, whose revenge involves a would-be rapper, who in turn is trying to escape the park's culture with the help of a cop who was part of a raid during which another dealer stole drugs from a dangerous Latino gang, etc. Trying to stay alive and hopeful in this endless, cyclical mayhem is Cody (an outstanding performance by Thomas Jefferson Byrd), a musician and drug casualty whose abandoned son (Brandon Quintin Adams) is reaching out to him. With Julie Delpy, Ellen Cleghorne, and Balthazar Getty. --Tom Keogh
Average customer rating:
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MacArthur Park
Starring: Brandon Quintin Adams , Bad Azz , Thomas Jefferson Byrd , Ellen Cleghorne , and William DaRuffa Manufacturer: Sundance Channel Home Entertainment ProductGroup: DVD Binding: DVD Similar Items:
ASIN: B00080ZH82 Release Date: 2005-04-01 |
Amazon.com
Despite its grim milieu--a Los Angeles park that is home to cocaine addicts, gangsters, and hustlers--MacArthur Park explodes with energy and humanity. The ensemble drama's compressed setting is like a small sea in which one denizen's misdeed or scam-gone-wrong creates currents of violence swallowing everyone else. In the 48 hours or so of the story's action, one low-level coke dealer rips off a fading television star, whose revenge involves a would-be rapper, who in turn is trying to escape the park's culture with the help of a cop who was part of a raid during which another dealer stole drugs from a dangerous Latino gang, etc. Trying to stay alive and hopeful in this endless, cyclical mayhem is Cody (an outstanding performance by Thomas Jefferson Byrd), a musician and drug casualty whose abandoned son (Brandon Quintin Adams) is reaching out to him. With Julie Delpy, Ellen Cleghorne, and Balthazar Getty. --Tom KeoghCustomer Reviews:
The most riveting,gritty movie of 2001!.......2004-07-13
MACARTHUR PARK: The Best Film of 2001 noone saw!.......2004-06-21
But Billy Wirth's "MacArthur Park" has an amazing ensemble led by underrated and underused Thomas Jefferson Byrd (good cineasts will recognize him from several Spike Lee joints, such as "Clockers", "Get on the Bus", "He Got Game" and his best role yet, prior to this film, in the overlooked and oft-misunderstood "Bamboozled").
It also has ex SNL alum Ellen Cleghorn (of WB sitcom fame), Lori Petty, Balthazar Getty (from Lynch's "Lost Highway"), and others.
The story is a disturbing but documentary like account of 48 hours in the life of homeless drug addicts and dealers and the people who float in and out of their orbit in LA's MacArthur Park.
It's an exhilirating, powerful and astonishing directorial debut that began as a documentary and took on actors to dramatize director-writer-actor Wirth's notes, fleshing out reality into a more palatable format (if you like your harsh truths and gritty reality in glossy, well-made fiction form).
Either way you take it, "MacArthur Park" is a diamond in the rough, an overlooked gem which is NOT TO BE MISSED!!!
Billy Wirth's Unflinching Look Inside MacArthur Park.......2004-05-19
Billy Wirth gives an unflinching look at the underside of life. As a take it or leave it Hip Hop - Rap fan, I was blown away by the soundtrack. I felt the music blended and pulled the movie together, it set the pace and took the viewer on a roller coaster ride.
The ensemble cast was extraordinary, I was truly amazed to see the performances that Billy got the cast to reveal. It is an intense film and subject matter but with a sense of family, for not giving up on family, or yourself. To see pass the weaknesses that we all share, that with love and faith in each other you can triumph.
The performances of Thomas Jefferson Byrd, Carlton Wilborn, Keno Deary, Ellen Cleghorn were special to me. I look forward to more work from these gifted actors.
I also feel the movie forces the viewer to look inside themselves, to experience another world that many of us don't know and refuse to see. The addict, the homeless, they could all be us. That they do have faces, names, families and souls.
Average customer rating:
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MacArthur Park
Starring: Thomas Jefferson Byrd , Brandon Quintin Adams , Tami Roman , Louis Freese , and Bad Azz Director: Billy Wirth Manufacturer: Sundance Channel Home Entertainment ProductGroup: DVD Binding: DVD Similar Items:
ASIN: B0001US614 Release Date: 2004-05-18 |
Amazon.com
Despite its grim milieu--a Los Angeles park that is home to cocaine addicts, gangsters, and hustlers--MacArthur Park explodes with energy and humanity. The ensemble drama's compressed setting is like a small sea in which one denizen's misdeed or scam-gone-wrong creates currents of violence swallowing everyone else. In the 48 hours or so of the story's action, one low-level coke dealer rips off a fading television star, whose revenge involves a would-be rapper, who in turn is trying to escape the park's culture with the help of a cop who was part of a raid during which another dealer stole drugs from a dangerous Latino gang, etc. Trying to stay alive and hopeful in this endless, cyclical mayhem is Cody (an outstanding performance by Thomas Jefferson Byrd), a musician and drug casualty whose abandoned son (Brandon Quintin Adams) is reaching out to him. With Julie Delpy, Ellen Cleghorne, and Balthazar Getty. --Tom KeoghDescription
Life in the park is daily warfare with rival gangs, police raids, the wealthy decadents who now come for drugs and the ongoing demons of addiction. This is where we meet Cody, once a dedicated family man whose addiction to crack cocaine met no criticism and was welcomed by others like him. The harder Cody tries to escape the parameters of the park, the more it seems to close in on him. Finally, Cody surrenders his pipe to reclaim a relationship with this son and a life outside MacArthur Park.Customer Reviews:
The most riveting,gritty movie of 2001!.......2004-07-13
MACARTHUR PARK: The Best Film of 2001 noone saw!.......2004-06-21
But Billy Wirth's "MacArthur Park" has an amazing ensemble led by underrated and underused Thomas Jefferson Byrd (good cineasts will recognize him from several Spike Lee joints, such as "Clockers", "Get on the Bus", "He Got Game" and his best role yet, prior to this film, in the overlooked and oft-misunderstood "Bamboozled").
It also has ex SNL alum Ellen Cleghorn (of WB sitcom fame), Lori Petty, Balthazar Getty (from Lynch's "Lost Highway"), and others.
The story is a disturbing but documentary like account of 48 hours in the life of homeless drug addicts and dealers and the people who float in and out of their orbit in LA's MacArthur Park.
It's an exhilirating, powerful and astonishing directorial debut that began as a documentary and took on actors to dramatize director-writer-actor Wirth's notes, fleshing out reality into a more palatable format (if you like your harsh truths and gritty reality in glossy, well-made fiction form).
Either way you take it, "MacArthur Park" is a diamond in the rough, an overlooked gem which is NOT TO BE MISSED!!!
Billy Wirth's Unflinching Look Inside MacArthur Park.......2004-05-19
Billy Wirth gives an unflinching look at the underside of life. As a take it or leave it Hip Hop - Rap fan, I was blown away by the soundtrack. I felt the music blended and pulled the movie together, it set the pace and took the viewer on a roller coaster ride.
The ensemble cast was extraordinary, I was truly amazed to see the performances that Billy got the cast to reveal. It is an intense film and subject matter but with a sense of family, for not giving up on family, or yourself. To see pass the weaknesses that we all share, that with love and faith in each other you can triumph.
The performances of Thomas Jefferson Byrd, Carlton Wilborn, Keno Deary, Ellen Cleghorn were special to me. I look forward to more work from these gifted actors.
I also feel the movie forces the viewer to look inside themselves, to experience another world that many of us don't know and refuse to see. The addict, the homeless, they could all be us. That they do have faces, names, families and souls.
Average customer rating: |
In MacArthur Park
Starring: James Espinoza , and Adam Silver Director: Bruce R. Schwartz Manufacturer: Knight ProductGroup: DVD Binding: DVD ASIN: B000BT98YO Release Date: 2005-12-27 |
Description
This sharply etched tale of paranoia and guilt was one of the first films to feature a Native American in the lead role. A moving portrayal of a Mojave Indian displaced in the skid row section of downtown Los Angeles, IN MACARTHUR PARK follows him as he turns to a life of crime to in order to support his family. After inadvertently murdering someone, he has to face racist police and his own guilt before he can return to his reservation in Arizona.
Average customer rating: |
Beyond the Edge (1987) / Condition Red (1995)
ProductGroup: DVD Binding: DVD ASIN: B000BR5002 |
Product Description
As a Young man, John(Brian Boone) is a member of generation x; a youth tribe with an uncertain future. He is alone in the world of turbulence and abandon. He searches for semblence of meaning in his chaotic life with his girlfriend Alice (Daisy Hall). Their only expression of affection is lovemaking but that can only last so long. Glen Plummer, star of "Showgirls", "Speed", and "Trtespass" masterfully plays Henry, John's only true friend and the only one who understands him. John's search finds Michael Green ("To live and die in LA", "Moon over Parador") who plays Digger, a crazed menace. Digger is homeless and wants to exact revenge on all those who have what he himself does not. John becomes Digger's victim and in his capacity finds himself. An emotional journey into the dark side of today's youth. Beyond the Edge is a powerful film that will captivate you with its depth and drama. ..... Dan is a prison guard on the edge of breaking. Demoted to the women's section of a maximum security prison, he is seduced by a streetwise female prisoner(Cynda Williams). 1995DVD:
DVD