FROM “ATL” TO “ESSJ”
Movie Review on “ATL” starring T.I.
By Hector Gonzalez

I just caught the movie “ATL” last night at the Eastridge Mall Movie Theater in the East Side of San Jose.   A perfect fit to watch the movie for a San Jose native like myself. Rapper T.I., who plays the main character Rashad, repped hard from So. ATL, and made me proud to be from East Side San Jo.

The movie tells the story of four Black friends, and their trials and tribulations growing up in the Atlanta. The movie sets a scenario of style and culture that makes me have a fairly comfortable understanding of what the ATL looks like culturally, being that some of the movie was filmed in Dallas, Texas. The four friends are struggling to find what it is that they will be doing after they graduate school, they find that because they are from South Atlanta, and because they are black, their options in life are often limited. The phrase, “It's not what you know, its who you know,” was often repeated in the movie as a reminder that although people have great aspirations to become something in life, they may not get there because they may not meet someone to give them the opportunity to prove themselves.

The film covers topics that anyone that is from a youth-urban-cultured environment could relate to -- issues such as identity, family, drug dealing and poverty were covered. When twin sisters Veda and Star get dropped off at the roller rink by their mom who drives a station wagon with the only doors that work being the drivers door and the back trunk , where the girls had to exit, I was reminded of school dances where I would get dropped off in similar circumstances.

The four best friends go to the roller rink, where everyone dresses like if they were in the latest rap music video. Gorgeous black girls shake their asses, and young men come through fitted up, so fresh and so clean, trying to impress the fly honeys. Every Sunday night, they make their way to the roller rink where the only thing that matters is being the best skater of the night, and not ever falling. For the night, nothing matters, they forget all their problems.

The movie reminded me of East Side San Jo, the side of town that I'm from. As I walked out of the movie theater with the movie fresh in my mind, I quickly compared it to the scenery of the mall. The young folks at the mall wore Nike Cortez's and Chuck Taylor's as a symbol of alliance to their Chicano experience. In ATL they had fat SUV's with Dubbs, but in San Jo we have lowriders, one of the pioneering cities of lowriding culture, and respected in the Bay Area for it's heavy cholo roots.

In the film, New-New played by Lauren London, who lives in a mansion nowhere near So. ATL, tries to front like if she's from there, and gets rejected once everyone finds out that she was lying. It's the same for us, the East Side is where it's at, that is were the culture is at, it is were the young folks create style out of struggle, so it's funny to hear people from Berryessa, Flickenger or Evergreen try to claim the Eastside, when all those places are far from the place where you might catch a rooster croak, or an elder lady pushing a cart selling tamales.

I related to Rashad, his struggles being from the poor side of town and for his love for where he was from. Everyone from the poor side of their town should watch ATL.

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